Dead Time Control Circuit for a Level Shifter

ABSTRACT

Systems, methods, and apparatus for use in biasing and driving high voltage semiconductor devices using only low voltage transistors are described. The apparatus and method are adapted to control multiple high voltage semiconductor devices to enable high voltage power control, such as power amplifiers, power management and conversion and other applications wherein a first voltage is large compared to the maximum voltage handling of the low voltage control transistors. Timing of control signals can be adjusted via internal and/or external components so as to minimize shoot trough currents in the high voltage devices. A DC/DC power conversion implementation from high input voltage to low output voltage using a novel level shifter which uses only low voltage transistors is also provided. Also presented is a level shifter in which floating nodes and high voltage capacitive coupling and control enable the high voltage control with low voltage transistors.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS—CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application is a continuation of commonly owned and co-pending U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/992,989 filed Jan. 11, 2016, entitled“Dead Time Control Circuit for a Level Shifter”, the disclosure of whichis incorporated herein by reference in its entirety; application Ser.No. 14/992,989 is a continuation-in-part of commonly owned U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/661,848 filed Mar. 18, 2015, entitled “LevelShifter”, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,484,897 issued Nov. 1, 2016, thedisclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.Application Ser. No. 14/661,848 may be related to U.S. Pat. No.5,416,043, issued on May 6, 1995 and entitled “Minimum charge FETfabricated on an ultrathin silicon on sapphire wafer”, the disclosure ofwhich is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. ApplicationSer. No. 14/661,848 may also be related to U.S. Pat. No. 5,600,169,issued on Feb. 4, 1997 and entitled “Minimum charge FET fabricated on anultrathin silicon on sapphire wafer”, the disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Application Ser. No.14/661,848 may also be related to PCT publication number WO2009/108391entitled “Method and Apparatus for use in Digitally Tuning a Capacitorin an Integrated Circuit Device”, published on Sep. 3, 2009, and to U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/595,893, entitled “Methods andApparatuses for Use in Tuning Reactance in a Circuit Device”, filed onAug. 27, 2012, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein byreference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND 1. Field

Various embodiments described herein relate generally to systems,methods, and devices for use in biasing and driving high voltagesemiconductor devices using only low breakdown voltage transistors.

2. Description of Related Art

In applications where high voltage semiconductor devices operating inhigh voltage conditions are controlled, high breakdown voltagetransistors are typically used in corresponding control circuitry. Forexample, in traditional gallium nitride (GaN) power managementapplications, transistors such as laterally diffused metal oxidesemiconductor (LDMOS), bipolar or high voltage metal-oxide-semiconductorfield-effect transistors (MOSFETs) can be utilized to control the GaNdevices operating in high voltage conditions. Since these controltransistors typically have poor figure of merit (FOM), compared to theFOM of the GaN devices, which can thereby, for example, limit theoperating frequencies of the GaN devices, the overall circuit (e.g.power management) can be limited in performance by the large, highvoltage control transistors which can be difficult to charge anddischarge quickly (e.g. their FOM is too high) and therefore the benefitof using the GaN devices can be substantially reduced. In suchapplications where high voltage devices (e.g. GaN) are controlled, itcan be desirable to tightly control timing of the ON state of the highvoltage devices, so as to, for example, reduce or eliminate overlap timeof the high voltage devices in the ON state.

SUMMARY

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, a circuitalarrangement is presented, the circuital arrangement being configured tocontrol a high side (HS) device and a low side (LS) device arranged in astacked configuration, the HS device and the LS device capable ofwithstanding a voltage higher than or equal to a first voltage, thecircuital arrangement comprising: a HS control circuit operating betweena first switching voltage and a second switching voltage based on thefirst switching voltage, the first switching voltage being an outputvoltage at a common output node of the stacked HS device and LS device,the HS control circuit configured to provide a HS output control signalat a voltage higher than the first voltage to the HS device; a LScontrol circuit configured to provide a LS output control signal to theLS device; and a dead time control circuit configured, to generatetiming information for the HS output control signal and the LS outputcontrol signal, wherein all transistor devices of the HS controlcircuit, the LS control circuit and the dead time controller circuit,are each configured to withstand a second voltage substantially smallerthan the first voltage.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, a method forcontrolling a high side (HS) device and a low side (LS) device arrangedin a stacked configuration is presented, the HS device and the LS devicecapable of withstanding a voltage higher than or equal to a firstvoltage, the method comprising: receiving an input timing signal; basedon the receiving, generating control timing signals for controlling theHS device and the LS device; generating, via capacitve coupling of thecontrol timing signals, an HS output control signal at a voltage higherthan the first voltage; generating, based on the control timing signals,an LS output control signal; controlling the HS device via the HS outputcontrol signal; and controlling the LS device via the LS output controlsignal; wherein the steps of generating are provided by transistordevices configured to withstand a second voltage substantially smallerthan the first voltage.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated into and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure and, together with the description of exampleembodiments, serve to explain the principles and implementations of thedisclosure.

FIG. 1 shows two high voltage stacked transistors, a low sidetransistor, LS, T1, and a high side, HS, transistor T2.

FIG. 2 shows a prior art embodiment of a gate driver circuit used forcontrolling the low side and the high side of the high voltage stackedtransistors of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3A shows a block diagram of a gate driver circuit according to anembodiment of the present disclosure which can be used to control thelow side and the high side of the high voltage stacked transistors ofFIG. 1. The gate driver circuit of FIG. 3A comprises an HS levelshifter, which according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, cancontrol high voltage devices by using only low voltage transistors. Inthe exemplary implementation depicted in FIG. 3A, the HS level shifteris used to control the high side transistor of the high voltage stackedtransistors of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3B shows a more detailed version of the gate driver circuit of FIG.3A, including a more detailed representation of the HS level shifter ofthe gate driver circuit which is used to control the high sidetransistor of the high voltage stacked transistors of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4A shows a circuital representation of an input stage of the HSlevel shifter according to an embodiment of the present disclosuredepicted in FIGS. 3A-3B, where capacitive coupling is used for edgedetection to provide control information to the HS level shifter and toprovide DC blocking.

FIG. 4B shows timing diagrams of signals at various nodes of the HSlevel shifter depicted in FIG. 4A.

FIG. 5A shows additional circuitry to the HS level shifter of FIG. 4A,which according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can eliminatethe tails of the pulses created at the various nodes of the low voltagelevel shifter.

FIG. 5B shows timing diagrams of signals at various nodes of the HSlevel shifter depicted in FIG. 5A, where the additional circuitryremoves the tails of the pulses.

FIG. 6A shows a clamping circuitry added to the HS level shifter of FIG.5A, where such clamping circuitry can protect various nodes of the HSlevel shifter from reaching voltage levels detrimental to the lowvoltage devices of the HS level shifter.

FIG. 6B shows the addition of inverter circuitry to a section of the HSlevel shifter of FIG. 6A.

FIGS. 6C-6F show the instantaneous voltage at a gate of a low voltagetransistor of the HS level shifter as a function of an RC time constantof a supply and reference potential of the HS level shifter.

FIG. 6G shows further details of the clamping circuitry and interface tothe rest of the HS level shifter.

FIG. 7A shows additional circuitry to the HS level shifter of FIG. 6A,where such additional circuitry is used to create two complementarycontrol signals.

FIG. 7B shows timing diagrams of the two complementary control signalsof FIG. 7A.

FIG. 8 shows a detailed circuital implementation of the various modulesof the gate driver circuit of FIG. 3A used to control the high side highvoltage transistor T2 of the stack depicted in FIG. 1.

FIG. 9 shows a block diagram of a gate driver circuit according to anembodiment of the present disclosure where two low voltage levelshifters similar to the HS level shifter of FIGS. 3A-3B are used, eachcontrolling one transistor of the stack depicted in FIG. 1.

FIG. 10 shows a modified block diagram of the gate driver circuit ofFIG. 3B comprising a dead time controller according to an embodiment ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 11 shows an input block of the gate driver depicted in FIG. 10.

FIGS. 12A-12C show timing diagrams of the high side and the low sidecontrol signals generated by the gate driver of FIG. 10.

FIG. 13 shows exemplary relative timing of control signals generated bythe dead time controller circuit of the present disclosure.

FIG. 14 shows an exemplary circuital representation of the dead timecontroller of the present disclosure.

FIG. 15A shows timing diagrams associated to nodes of a low side signalprocessing path of the dead time controller circuit represented in FIG.14.

FIG. 15B shows timing diagrams associated to nodes of a high side signalprocessing path of the dead time controller circuit represented in FIG.14.

FIG. 16 shows an exemplary circuital representation of the dead timecontroller of the present disclosure with a reduced propagation delay.

FIGS. 17A-17B show current source circuits with compensated current withrespect to process, voltage and temperature variations.

FIGS. 18A-18C show different low voltage transistor structures which canbe used in the various embodiments of the HS level shifter according tothe present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

It can be desirable to use small, low breakdown voltage MOSFETtransistors which can have figure of merits (FOMs), as measured, forexample, by the product of the ON resistance R_(on) of the transistorand the gate charge C_(g) of the transistor, similar to or better(lower) than the FOM of high voltage transistors (transistors withhigher breakdown voltage) as controlling transistors in applicationswhere high voltage semiconductor devices operating in high voltageconditions are controlled. Such MOSFETs can allow for best use of theGaN characteristics, thereby improving both performance and cost of theimplementation. In addition, by implementing a single chip silicon oninsulator (SOI) MOSFET solution based on low voltage MOSFETs, additionalfunctionality can be included which address additional areas known to aperson of ordinary skill in the art such as, but not limited to, GaNgate voltage overdrive protection, minimum gate drive requirements, deadtime control, temperature stability, floating node tracking and startupvoltage condition among others.

The present disclosure describes a level shifter circuit capable ofdriving control voltages or analog signals at relatively low voltagessuch as about 0 to 3.5/5V, while riding, or “flying,” on top of highvoltages substantially higher than the low voltages, such as 20-100 V orhigher. The various embodiments presented herein describe low voltagecontrol of high voltages performed by the novel level shifter whichenables proper control of high voltage devices using low (breakdown)voltage transistors of the level shifter, where the low breakdownvoltage is substantially smaller than the high voltage.

As used in the present disclosure, a high voltage device or high voltagetransistor refers to a semiconductor transistor device which canwithstand and block (e.g. in the OFF state) DC voltages (typicallyapplied between the source and drain terminals of the transistor, or anytwo of drain, source and gate terminals) greater than 5-10 V, and moretypically substantially greater than 5-10 V, such as greater than 20-100V. Some exemplary high voltage devices are depletion mode GaNtransistors (d-GaN), enhancement mode GaN transistors (e-GaN), stackedMOS transistors, and other high-voltage transistors known to a personskilled in the art, such as Si MOSFETs, hexagonal shape FETs (HEXFETs),LDMOS, indium phosphide (InP), etc. which can also be enhancement ordepletion modes (e.g. e-type or d-type) and N or P polarity.

In the present disclosure e-GaN FET transistors are used as exemplaryhigh voltage devices in order to describe the various embodiments of thepresent application, and therefore such exemplary usage should not beconstrued as limiting the scope of the invention as disclosed herewith.Unless explicitly mentioned as d-GaN, the terms GaN and e-GaN areconsidered synonymous herein.

A person skilled in the art can recognize that depletion mode d-GaNdevices or other types of high voltage transistors such as Si MOSFETs,HEXFETs, LDMOS, InP (and all these examples can be of the e-type ord-type; and N or P polarity) or virtually any device capable ofswitching ON or OFF with high voltages applied can be controlled inaccordance with the teachings of the present disclosure.

E-GaN devices have typical threshold, or turn-on, voltages ofapproximately +0.7 to +3 V of gate-to-source voltage. Such devices aretypically capable of withstanding 5 V to 200 V of drain-to-source,V_(DS), voltage, thereby enabling high voltage applications, such as,for example, DC/DC power conversion from a high input voltage to a lowoutput voltage. GaN transistors are used in the present disclosure as anexemplary approach to high voltage power management due to the knownadvantageous characteristics of GaN transistors, such as, for example, alow FOM.

As used in the present disclosure, a low voltage device or low voltagetransistor refers to a semiconductor transistor device with a lowbreakdown voltage which can withstand and block (e.g. in the OFF state)DC voltages (e.g. typically applied between the source and drainterminals of the transistor, or any two of drain, source and gateterminals) less than 10 V and more typically substantially less than10V, such as less than 3.3-5 V. Some exemplary low voltage devices arecomplementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) transistors.

As used in the present disclosure, the figure of merit (FOM) of aswitching transistor (e.g. a transistor which can have a conducting ONstate and a non-conducting OFF state), also simply noted as FOM, refersto the product of the ON resistance R_(on) of the transistor and thegate charge C_(g) of the transistor. A lower FOM can be indicative of ahigher switching performance of a transistor. Having a low FOM,especially at high withstand voltages, is a distinctive characteristicof GaN transistors, which are capable of handling up to 100 V with a FOMapproximately ten times lower than the FOM of a high voltage MOSFET.

Throughout this description, embodiments and variations of the levelshifter are described for the purpose of illustrating uses andimplementations of the inventive concept. The illustrative descriptionshould be understood as presenting examples of the inventive concept,rather than as limiting the scope of the concept as disclosed herein.

The various embodiments of the present disclosure can be used inapplications where control of high voltage devices is desirable usinglow voltage transistors. Although the exemplary case of DC/DC convertersis used to describe the various embodiments of the level shifteraccording to the present disclosure, such exemplary case should not beconstrued as limiting the scope of the invention as disclosed herewith.The person skilled in the art is able to use the teachings according tothe present disclosure and apply such teachings to specific applicationswhere low voltage control of high voltages is desired.

FIG. 1 shows two stacked GaN transistors, T1 and T2, which can be usedas a basis for high voltage stacked GaN transistors. As used in thepresent disclosure, transistors T1 and T2 can be referred to as,respectively, the low side (LS) transistor and the high side (HS)transistor, and any controlling element associated in controlling the LStransistor and the HS transistor can likewise be referred to as,respectively, the low side (LS) control and the high side (HS) control.In the present disclosure DC/DC conversion serves as an exemplaryapplication for control of stacked high voltage transistors whoseteachings can be applied to other applications where stacked transistorscontrol voltages larger than the inherent voltage handling capability ofconventional control devices (e.g. using low voltage controltransistors). A person skilled in the art will recognize that while theexemplary DC/DC converter using the stacked transistor of FIG. 1 relieson two stacked GaN FETs T1 and T2, the inventive control systemdisclosed herein can be applied to a stack height of one, as well as tolarger stack heights of three, four, or any number of stackedtransistors, and to any high voltage transistor made in other materialsand/or fabrication processes.

FIG. 2 shows a typical prior art embodiment of a gate driver circuit(210) used for controlling the stacked GaN transistors T1, T2 of FIG. 1.Such prior art circuit depicted in FIG. 2 can be used for implementing,for example, a DC/DC converter. The input voltage, VIN, shown in FIGS. 1and 2, applied to the drain of the top transistor T2 (high sidetransistor) of the stack can be as high as the voltage handlingcapability of the chosen GaN transistors T1 and T2 (e.g. 20V-100V orhigher). As known by a person skilled in the art, based on the inputvoltage V_(IN), a lower voltage can be generated by controlling thelength of time of the ON/OFF states of the two transistors. Such lowvoltage can be obtained, for example, by filtering a voltage at thecommon output node SW of the two transistors T1 and T2.

As can be seen in the prior art embodiment of FIG. 2, the source of thelower GaN transistor T1 is tied to a reference ground, GND, and thesource of the upper GaN transistor T2 is tied to the drain of T1, whichtogether create an output node SW. Throughout the present disclosure,all circuits or devices associated with (e.g. with controlling) the LStransistor T1 are referred to as low side or LS circuits, devices, orcontrols, and those associated with the HS transistor T2 are referred toas high side or HS circuits, devices, or controls.

The exemplary prior art circuit shown in FIG. 2 converts the high inputvoltage V_(IN), to a lower voltage obtained via the output node SW. Inone exemplary embodiment V_(IN) can be 40V and the lower voltageobtained via node SW (e.g. via filtering of voltage at node SW) can beabout 1.5V. In addition to being able to handle high voltage, it isimportant for the DC/DC converter of FIG. 2 to exhibit high efficiencyin making such a conversion and also doing so at a high frequency. Theperson skilled in the art readily understands the concept of efficiencyin a power conversion application, as well as the desired high frequencyconversion which enables use of smaller inductive components in a filter(not shown in FIG. 2) associated to the output node SW. GaN devicesprovide high efficiency due to their low Ron, as discussed above, whilesimultaneously switching at high speed due to their low Cg.

The gate driver circuit (210) of the prior art embodiment depicted inFIG. 2 controls the switching of the LS transistor and the HS transistorof the high voltage stacked transistors depicted in FIG. 1 between theirrespective ON and OFF states to provide a desired voltage, based on theinput voltage V_(IN), at node SW. The gate driver circuit (210) controlsthe switching of the LS transistor T1 and the HS transistor T2 byproviding the gate voltages needed to turn ON or OFF each of the twotransistors T1 and T2, typically in an alternating fashion, where onlyone of the two transistors can be ON (or OFF) at any one time. Such gatevoltages can be obtained via a feedback loop (not shown) between afiltered voltage based on the voltage at node SW and the input terminalIN to the gate driver circuit (210). The person skilled in the artreadily knows that a pulse width modulator (PWM) controlled by thefiltered voltage (e.g. at node SW) can be used in such feedback loop toprovide low voltage control timing pulses to the gate driver circuit(210). Such low voltage timing pulses can be fed to the input block LowVoltage Transistors logic (215) of the driver circuit (210) of FIG. 2,and subsequently fed to the HS Level Shifter (& Output Driver) (225),which includes high (breakdown) voltage transistors, for conversion to avoltage level adequate to control the gates of the HS transistor T2 ofthe high voltage stacked transistors of FIG. 1.

In a typical implementation and upon a power up sequence, the gatedriver circuit (210) of the prior art embodiment depicted in FIG. 2 caninitially turn off either the high side transistor (T2) or both of thehigh side and the low side transistors (T1, T2) to ensure that both T1and T2 are in a safe OFF state while all other DC/DC converterassociated circuitry stabilizes upon the power-up. Subsequently, thegate driver (210) can control a DC voltage conversion (e.g. V_(IN) toSW) by initially turning on the low side (LS) transistor T1 by drivingits gate voltage above its threshold voltage while turning OFF the highside (HS) transistor T2. This brings the voltage at node SW to GND sinceT1 is conducting and therefore its V_(DS) can be very close to zero.Also, since the source of T2 is close to GND, the HS transistor T2 holdsoff all of the V_(IN) voltage applied to its drain (e.g. itsV_(DS)=V_(IN)).

Alternatively, when the gate driver (210) of the prior art embodimentdepicted in FIG. 2 turns OFF LS transistor T1 and turns ON the HStransistor T2 of FIG. 2, the output node SW is charged high toward thevoltage V_(IN). Since the HS transistor T2 is conducting and the LStransistor T1 is not conducting, during the ON period (e.g. length oftime of ON state) of the HS transistor T2, the output node SW will havea nominal voltage equal to V_(IN), other than during a correspondingcharging and discharging period at the beginning and end of the ONperiod. During the ON period of T2, the gate voltage of HS transistor T2stays positive (e.g. by a voltage equal to Vddx as provided by theVddx+SW supply to the HS transistor T2 controlling block (225)) withrespect to the voltage at the output node SW such as to keep the HStransistor T2 ON and conducting strongly (e.g. Vddx≥V_(th) of T2, whereV_(th) is the threshold voltage of HS transistor T2), thereby keepingthe voltage at node SW at V_(IN). Hence the driving nodes in the gatedriver controller circuit (210) connected to node SW can withstandvoltages with respect to GND up to the voltage V_(IN), and potentiallyeven higher when transient charging and resonance effects, as known tothe person skilled in art, are included. For example, when HS transistorT2 is ON, voltage at node SW (e.g. source of T2) equals V_(IN) and thegate of the HS transistor T2 can be at approximately V_(IN)+Vddx, suchas to turn T2 ON (e.g. Vddx≥V_(th) of T2, where V_(th) is the thresholdvoltage of HS transistor of T2). Hence somewhere within the HS levelshifter (& output driver) (225) module of FIG. 2 where control timingpulses are provided to the gate of the HS transistor T2 via high voltagetransistor devices, the high V_(IN) voltage is dropped; that is, thereis an active device within the module (225) which sees the high V_(IN)voltage across two of its terminals. In the prior art gate driver (210)depicted in FIG. 2, such high voltage is handled by the high voltagetransistors inside the HS level shifter (& output driver) (225) moduleof FIG. 2.

The high (breakdown) voltage transistors used in the prior art gatedriver circuit (210) of FIG. 2 which are used to control the HStransistor T2 can be transistors such as high voltage MOSFETs, bipolar,HEXFETs, LDMOS, or other types of (control) transistors known to theperson skilled in the art. Such high voltage transistors can have an FOMand other switching characteristics that do not match thecharacteristics of the GaN FETs of the LS transistor T1 and HStransistor T2 used in the high voltage stack depicted in FIG. 1. Forexample, their FOMs can be up to 10 times worse (higher) than the FOM ofthe GaN FETs T1 and T2. Therefore, much of the benefit of the GaN FETsof the exemplary prior art circuit depicted in FIG. 2 can be lost due tothe lower performance characteristics of the high voltage transistorscontrolling the GaN FETs (LS transistor T1 and HS transistor T2). Suchhigh voltage transistors can be expensive compared to low voltagetransistors. Furthermore, each of the mentioned type of high voltagetransistors may have other features such as cost, availability orcomplexity that could make it undesirable in certain high voltageapplications.

It can therefore be desirable to control the high voltage GaN FETs withlow voltage devices such as, for example, standard Si MOSFETs. By usinglow voltage MOSFETs, low cost, high precision and high volume CMOSmanufacturing techniques can provide the necessary control while keepingthe performance advantages provided by the GaN FET transistors, therebyeliminating the need for more exotic, high voltage transistors in thecontrol circuit (e.g. gate driver). It can also be desirable to use lowvoltage MOSFETs in the control circuits because single chip embodimentsare enabled as additional control or signal processing capabilities canbe integrated within a same chip. The person skilled in art canappreciate such integration as single chip devices (e.g. monolithicintegration) typically offer the most reproducible solutions possible inthe electronics arts.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure systems, devices andmethods are provided to enable such an integrated control system forcontrolling high voltage devices using exclusively low (breakdown)voltage transistors. According to one exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure later described, low voltage (e.g. less than 5 V) SOIMOSFETs can be used to create a gate driver circuit capable ofcontrolling GaN FETs operating with a V_(IN) voltage of 20-100V orabove. In particular, a novel level shifter circuit is presented whichwhen integrated in the gate driver circuit can enable such gate drivercircuit to operate using only low voltage transistors. In other words,the level shifter according to the various embodiments of the presentdisclosure can drop the high V_(IN) voltage without impressing that highvoltage on any transistors.

FIG. 3A shows a block diagram of a gate driver circuit (310) accordingto an embodiment of the present disclosure which can be used to controlthe LS transistor T1 and the HS transistor T2 of the high voltagestacked GaN transistors of FIG. 1. In contrast to the prior art gatedriver circuit (210) of FIG. 2 where a HS level shifter (225), usinghigh voltage transistors, is used to handle the high voltage dropassociated with the high voltage V_(IN), the gate driver (310) uses aninnovative HS level shifter (325) according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure to perform the same high voltage drop task withoutusing high voltage transistors. In all blocks (315, 325, 335, 355) ofthe gate driver (310) shown in FIG. 3A, including the HS level shifter(325), all constituent transistors handle only low voltages, e.g.between their sources and drains, and therefore low breakdown voltagetransistors can be used for implementing such gate driver (310). As canbe seen in the block diagram of FIG. 3A, the gate driver (310) accordingto an embodiment of the present disclosure, can include a common inputlogic circuit (315), high side control circuits (325, 355) and a lowside control circuit (335). As will be described below, embodiments ofthe current disclosure couple the input low voltage (timing) controlsignals (e.g. provided at the input IN terminal of the gate drivercircuit (310) and further processed via the common input logic circuit(315)) to the high side control circuits (e.g. 325, 355) throughcapacitors which can block the high voltage. Such coupling can allowdielectric isolation between circuits on a same die, with high voltagecircuits used, for example, in the HS control blocks (325, 355),operating with respect to a reference potential (e.g. voltage at nodeSW) which can be significantly larger than the reference potential (e.g.GND) used in the low voltage circuits used, for example, in the LScontrol circuit (335) and the common input logic block (315). A personskilled in the art readily recognizes that magnetic coupling or opticalcoupling between the low voltage and high voltage domains (e.g.circuits) can also be utilized in place of the capacitive coupling. Ingeneral any type of coupling that can provide galvanic isolation(non-galvanic coupling) between the low voltage and high voltagecircuits can be used in the embodiments according to the presentdisclosure. Capacitive coupling can be both cheaper and easier tointegrate into single chip solutions than alternate couplings. For thesereasons, several embodiments of the present disclosure describecapacitive coupling as a preferred embodiment, where the capacitivecoupling is used both for edge detection and DC blocking between thehigh voltage and the low voltage circuits.

FIG. 3B shows a more detailed version of an exemplary embodimentaccording to the present disclosure of the gate driver circuit (310) ofFIG. 3A. In particular, capacitive coupling within the HS level shifter(325) is shown, which capacitive coupling (as provided by the DCblocking edge detection circuit 320) is used to decouple the DC content(e.g. DC blocking) between the HS level shifter (325) and the commoninput logic circuit (315) while providing relevant control timinginformation associated to the input signal IN to the HS level shiftercircuit (325) by edge detection. Such control timing information cansubsequently be processed by circuitry, including logic circuitry, inthe Logic block (330) of the HS level shifter (325). Furthermore, FIG.3B shows the supplies and reference potentials to the high side controlcircuits (325, 355), the low side control circuit (335), the commoninput logic circuit (315) and the LS transistor T1 and the HS transistorT2 of the high voltage stacked transistors of FIG. 1. As can be seen inFIG. 3B, the common input logic circuit (315), and the low side controlcircuits composed of the LS level shifter (360) and the LS output driver(365) are provided with a low voltage supply Vdd1 and a referencepotential GND (e.g. reference zero volts), whereas the high side controlcircuits (325, 355), composed of the HS level shifter (325) and the HSoutput driver (355), are provided with a supply voltage Vdd2+SW and areference potential SW, where the reference potential SW is the voltageat the common node SW and can be up to a high voltage V_(IN) above thereference potential GND of the low voltage circuits (note that the HSlevel shifter circuit (325) can additionally be provided with Vdd1 andGND as depicted in FIG. 3B and explained in later sections of thepresent disclosure). Therefore, the low voltage transistors used in thelow side circuits (controlling the LS transistor T1) and the low voltagetransistors used in the high side circuits (controlling the HStransistor T2) of the gate driver (310) can be subjected to a lowvoltage excursion equal Vdd1 or Vdd2. It should be noted that both Vdd1and Vdd2 represent low voltage supplies which can be same or different.Furthermore, for simplicity reasons, the supply voltage Vdd2+SW providedto the high side control circuits described in the present disclosurecan be annotated as V_(DD), such as V_(DD)=Vdd2+SW.

As can be seen in FIG. 3B, the input signal IN to the gate driver (310)can be processed by the common input logic circuit (315) of the gatedriver (310) and generate two signals, LX and HX, where the LX signalcan be fed to the low side control circuit (335) of the gate driver(310), composed of the LS level shifter (335) and the LS output driver(365), to generate a control signal for the gate of the low sidetransistor (T1); and the HX signal can be fed to the high side controlcircuits (325, 355) of the gate driver (310), composed of the HS levelshifter (325) and the HS output driver (355), to generate a controlsignal for the gate of the high side transistor (T2). The HS outputdriver (355) outputs a signal HS_out, which has the required amplitudeand drive strength (e.g. current) to drive the high side transistor(T2). The HS_out signal output by the HS output driver (355) containsthe same timing information as provided by its input signal, the inputsignal being provided by the Logic block (330) of the HS level shifter(325). According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, signalsLX and HX can be a same signal, except for a desired delay, andtherefore can contain the same timing information.

FIG. 4A shows a circuital representation of an input stage of the HSlevel shifter (325) of FIGS. 3A-3B according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure, and FIG. 4B depicts timing diagrams of varioussignals of the circuit represented in FIG. 4A. As can be seen in FIG.4A, the input stage of the HS level shifter (325) can comprise an inputsignal conditioning portion (325 a), which can operate between Vdd1 andGND, generating two complementary signals, Cub and CDb, based on theinput signal HX, and a capacitive signal decoupling portion (325 b)which can operate between Vdd2+SW and SW and whose functionaldescription is provided in the following sections of the presentdisclosure. It should be noted that although the circuit (325 a) isshown as part of the HS level shifter (325), according to someembodiments of the present disclosure, circuit (325 a) can be separatefrom (325) and even part of circuit (315).

The HS level shifter circuit, whose input section is represented in FIG.4A, can allow a low voltage circuit (e.g. (315) of FIGS. 3A-3B) tocontrol and operate high voltage control circuits (e.g. via T1, T2 andV_(IN)) and can be further referred to in the present disclosure as alow voltage transistor level shifter (LVTLS), or “level shifter”. In theparticular implementation of FIGS. 3A-3B where such level shiftercontrols operation of the high side (HS) transistor (T2), the levelshifter can be referred to as HS-LVTLS, or simply as the HS levelshifter. The level shifter of FIG. 4A allows for signals to be drivenbetween elements that are separated by high voltages (e.g. V_(IN)),meaning the low voltage signals have their DC reference (e.g. referencepotential) level shifted up or down along with the common node SW. Thisis schematically represented in FIG. 4A by a switching referencepotential SW (feeding a reference line labelled V_(SS)), which asdescribed in earlier sections of the present application can switchbetween V_(IN) and ground (GND) as a function of the alternating ON/OFFstates of transistors T1 and T2.

According to further embodiments of the present disclosure, the levelshifter represented in FIG. 4A (except the input portion (325 a) of thelevel shifter) can float up and down with the level of the referencepotential SW (=V_(SS)) and can be isolated from GND (e.g. referencepotential of the low voltage circuits of FIGS. 3A-3B and (325 a)). Thiscan allow the level shifter to operate using its constituent lowbreakdown voltage transistors in spite of high voltage excursions of20-100V or more at the reference potential SW (=V_(SS)) with respect tothe reference potential GND. During operation of the level shifter, theconstituent low voltage transistors are subjected to internal voltageexcursions (e.g. at their source, gate and drain terminals) not largerthan a low voltage supply (e.g. Vdd2 of FIG. 3B). Capacitive isolationbetween the common input logic circuit (315) and the HS level shiftercircuit (325, 355), as described in the prior sections of the presentdisclosure, can be provided by capacitors C_(1A), C_(1B), C_(2A) andC_(2B) of FIG. 4A (later described).

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure the levelshifter (e.g. HS level shifter, LS level shifter) is fabricated, in itsentirety or partially, in Silicon on Insulator (SOI) CMOS with an SOIsubstrate capable of withstanding the maximum DC voltage (e.g. V_(IN)20-100 V in this example) excursion at the reference potential SW withrespect to the GND without conducting current or breaking down.According to a further exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure,the level shifter can be fabricated, in its entirety or partially, usingsilicon on sapphire (SOS) fabrication technology, as described, forexample, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,416,043, issued on May 6, 1995, and in U.S.Pat. No. 5,600,169, issued on Feb. 4, 1997, whose disclosures areincluded herein by reference in their entirety. According to furtherexemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, fabricationtechnologies which can provide junction isolation between low voltageactive circuits (e.g. transistors) and the corresponding substrate canalso be used to fabricate the level shifter. The person skilled in theart will recognize that bulk silicon (Si) can provide such junctionisolation between low voltage active circuits and the substrate.

With further reference to FIG. 4A, operation of the HS level shifter(325) according to the various embodiments of the present disclosure isdescribed using the corresponding timing diagram of FIG. 4B. Signal HXof FIG. 4B represents an input timing control provided to thesingle-ended input terminal HX of a low voltage circuit (e.g. (325 a) ofFIG. 4A). The signal HX can be represented by a square wave signal (e.g.of a same or different duty cycle) which can be derived, for example,from a pulse width modulator (not shown but easily understood by aperson skilled in the art to be to the left of IN input terminal inFIGS. 3A-3B). Signal HX is converted, within the input stage circuit(325 a) of the HS level shifter (325), from a single-ended signal to adifferential signal represented by CUb and CDb in FIGS. 4A-4B, with CDbbeing an inverse, or logic NOT function, of CUb. The reason for creatingthe differential, and inverted, form of the HX signal is describedbelow. It should be noted that although the following sections willassume that signals CUb and CDb are inverted versions of one another,according to further exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure,such signals can include a time shift (e.g. delay), such as one is aninverted and time shifted version of the other. The time shift can beused, for example, to compensate for differences in propagation delaysbetween paths taken by the two signals Cub and CDb.

As can be seen by considering both the circuit diagram of FIG. 4A andthe timing diagram of FIG. 4B, CUb is applied between capacitors C1A andC1B and CDb is applied between capacitors C2A and C2B. It should benoted that the positive edge of CUb aligns with the negative edge ofCDb.

At the positive edge of CUb, a positive pulse signal is induced at nodesCUvss and CUvdd. Since prior to the induced positive pulse signal, nodeCUvss is at a low level (i.e. V_(SS)=SW), the positive pulse signalinduced at node CUvss brings the node to the high level (i.e. betweenV_(SS)=SW and V_(DD)=Vdd2+SW). At the same time, since prior to theinduced positive pulse signal, node CUvdd is at a high level, thepositive pulse signal induced at node CUvdd attempts to increase thelevel above V_(DD)=Vdd2+SW, but the Vdd2 power supply limits its size.Therefore, the positive edge of CUb causes CUvss to transition fromlower (SW) to higher (V_(DD)) level, but CUvdd stays at a high level.According to various embodiments of the present disclosure described inthe following sections, the CUvss transition between the lower level(SW) and the higher level (Vdd2+SW) can be used to trigger digitalcircuitry that latches the timing of CUb. It should be noted thatpull-up resistors, R10, R12, and pull-down resistors R11, R13, providesteady-state voltage levels to the signals at nodes CUvdd, CDvdd, CUvssand CDvss respectively. As depicted in the timing diagram of FIG. 4B,the appropriate edge of the signals CUb and CDb will cause the voltagesat these nodes to transition to the opposite state. Selection of thevalues of resistors R10-R13 can be made based on a number of designconstraints, such as, for example; a desired value of an associated RCtime constant provided by the combination of a resistor R10-R13 at anode CUvdd-CDvss and a corresponding capacitor C1A-C2B, a desired signallevel at nodes CUvdd-CDvss, and a desired physical size of capacitorsC1A-C2B. The person skilled in the art readily knows how to select thevalues of the capacitors C1A-C2B and resistors R10-R13 given specificdesign constraints.

Aligned with the positive edge of CUb is the negative edge of CDb, andtherefore at the same time that the positive pulse signal is induced atnodes CUvss and CUvdd, a negative pulse signal is induced by CDb atnodes CDvss and CDvdd, thus creating signals at those nodes which arecomplementary to signals created at nodes CUvss and CUvdd. As can beseen in the corresponding timing diagram of FIG. 4B, such complementarysignals have the same shape, but go in opposite directions (invertedsignals) and start at either V_(DD) (=Vdd2+SW) or V_(SS). For example,signals at nodes CUvss and CDvdd are complementary (e.g. inverted) aswell as signals at nodes CUvdd and CDvss. Also, for example, at theleading edge of CUb, signal at node CUvss switches from V_(SS) to V_(DD)and subsequently gradually discharges to V_(SS), and at the trailingedge of CUb, signal at node CUvdd switches from V_(DD) to V_(SS) andsubsequently gradually charges to V_(DD).

It should be noted that the signals represented in the timing diagram ofFIG. 4B can have different DC offsets corresponding to the referencepotential where a corresponding circuit operates. For example, signalsHX, CUb and CDb have a zero DC offset since the corresponding circuitsoperate with respect to the reference potential GND, whereas signalsCUvss, CUvdd, CDvss and CDvdd have a DC offset equal to the level of SW,since the corresponding circuit (e.g. HS level shifter) operates withrespect to the reference potential V_(SS)=SW. The CDvdd transitiongenerate similarly to CUb but in the opposite direction. Therefore, thesignal at node CDvdd has a transition from a high level (Vdd2+SW) to alow level (SW) that can be latched by subsequent circuitry. The reasonfor creating complementary transition is described below. It should befurther noted that all signals shown in FIG. 4B (as well as in FIGS. 5Band 7B later described) have low voltage swings (such as being boundedby V_(SS) and V_(DD)) except for signal at node SW, which has a HI levelof V_(IN) and a LOW level of GND, as indicated in FIG. 4B.

The complementary signals at nodes CUvss, CDvdd and CUvdd, CDvsseliminate false triggers caused by either the rising or falling level ofthe V_(SS) reference (and therefore of the V_(DD) as well, sinceV_(SS)=SW, and V_(DD)=Vdd2+SW) by providing two complementary (inverted)pulses for each transition of signal HX which includes timinginformation. For example, complementary (inverted) pulse signals atnodes CUvss and CDvdd each represent timing information on the fallingedge of the signal HX, whereas complementary (inverted) pulse signalsCUvdd and CDvss each represent timing information on the rising edge ofthe signal HX.

During time periods when V_(SS) is either rising or falling betweenV_(IN) and GND, charging currents can be induced through capacitorsC1A-C2B and therefore generate undesired positive or negative pulsesignals at nodes CUvdd-CDvss. As will be seen in the following sectionsof the present disclosure, the pulse signals at nodes CUvdd-CDvsstrigger additional logic that subsequently controls the high side GaNtransistor T2. Therefore, any undesired (e.g. false) pulses can causeerrors in the control signals which in turn can prevent proper controlof the high side transistor which in turn can cause erroneous outputvoltage and degrade device reliability. By choosing both an upward anddownward pulse (e.g. differential signal), and requiring both an upwardand downward pulse to trigger a subsequent latch (as described in FIG.7A through transistors M2-M5), the pulses derived from the HX signal (HXbeing derived from the IN signal) can be distinguished from the (false)pulses caused by rising or falling levels of V_(SS).

As seen in FIG. 4B, on rising edges of the HX signal, CUvss and CDvddappear not to generate any pulses, and on falling edges of the HXsignal, CUvdd and CDvss appear not to generate any pulses. In reality,during such transitions, some pulses may arise (for example, on a risingedge of the HX signal, at node CUvss, a small pulse signal going belowthe V_(SS) level (i.e. SW) can be observed, and on a falling edge of theHX signal, at node CUvdd, a small pulse signal going above the V_(DD)level (i.e. Vdd2+SW) can be observed). It follows that according to anembodiment of the present disclosure a clamp circuit (e.g. FIG. 6 laterdescribed) can be used to clamp and control such pulses rather than havethem deliver charge (and therefore waste power) to V_(SS) or V_(DD).

Therefore, the level shifter according to the embodiment of the presentdisclosure converts the input signal square wave represented by HX inFIG. 4B, to complementary pulse signals at nodes CUvss, CUvdd, CDvss andCDvdd with corresponding pulse shapes and timings as shown in FIG. 4B.These complementary pulses track the timing information provided by theinput signal at IN (leading and trailing edges of IN) while being at aDC level equal to SW which defines V_(SS). For example, suchcomplementary pulses have a DC level equal to V_(IN) when V_(SS) is atV_(IN) and have a DC level equal to GND when V_(SS) is at GND. Hence, aperson skilled in the art will recognize that the HS level shifter (325)according to various embodiments of the present disclosure drops theV_(IN) high voltage across capacitors C1A, C1B, C2A and C2B.

It is pointed out that the pulse signals at CUb and CDb have a magnitudeof a low voltage Vdd2 (e.g. in the range of 0-5 V and typically 0-2.5V)while the pulses CUvss, CUvdd, CDvss and CDvdd have a magnitude whichcan range between V_(SS) and V_(SS)+Vdd2=SW+Vdd2=V_(DD). Hence, notransistor within the gate driver circuit (310) using the described HSlevel shifter circuit handles the V_(IN) high voltage across itself(e.g. between its drain and source terminals), in sharp contrast toprior art solutions in which high (breakdown) voltage transistors areused in place of the capacitive level shifter (HS level shifter (325))according to the present embodiments. In the previously describedembodiment according to the present disclosure where SOI MOSFETs areused as the low voltage transistors, the V_(IN) high voltage is alsohandled by the insulating SOI substrate layer.

As can be seen by the pulse shapes in FIG. 4B, pulses generated at nodesCUvss, CUvdd, CDvss and CDvdd have long tails caused by the RC nature ofthe associated circuitry (due, for example, to R10, C1A, R11, C1B, R12,C2A, R13, C2B) with corresponding RC time constants. In someembodiments, it can be desirable to enable pulses as close together aspossible, thereby enabling the largest ratio (i.e. duty cycle) betweenON/OFF or OFF/ON at the input IN of the gate driver circuit (310) ofFIG. 3B, such as generated, for example, by a pulse width modulator(PWM). However, the long tails of the pulses at nodes CUvss, CUvdd,CDvss and CDvdd can prevent obtainment of such large ratio. In the nextparagraphs, a further embodiment of the present disclosure will bepresented, where such tails are shortened using discharge transistorsM6-M9 as depicted in FIG. 5A.

FIG. 5A shows additional circuitry to the HS level shifter (325) of FIG.4A, which according to an embodiment of the present disclosure canshorten the tails of the pulses created at nodes CUvss, CUvdd, CDvss andCDvdd and therefore can allow for shorter time between pulses. This isdone by adding discharge transistors M6-M9 which are configured to shortthe isolation capacitors C1A-C2B either to V_(SS) or to V_(DD), therebydischarging any residual voltage tail they may have at the time ofshorting (and therefore not discharged through a corresponding resistorR10-R13). For example, when discharge transistor M9 is turned on, itshortens node CUvdd to V_(DD), thereby bypassing discharge via resistorR10, and when discharge transistor M6 is turned on, node CDvss isshorted to V_(SS), and thereby bypassing discharge via resistor R13.

The impact of the discharging transistors M6-M9 on the shapes of thepulses at nodes CUvss, CUvdd, CDvss and CDvdd can be seen as the boldlines (510) in FIG. 5B. As can be seen, such pulses keep their originalshape (following an RC time constant associated to a correspondingcapacitor-resistor pair C1A-C2B, R10-R13) until the dischargetransistors are triggered after a certain period of time from the starta pulse, and then the voltages on CUvss, CUvdd, CDvss and CDvdd returnto either V_(SS) or V_(DD), as shown by the bold lines in FIG. 5B.Although not shown in FIG. 5A, control signals to the dischargetransistors M6-M9 can be provided at the gates of the dischargetransistors. Such control signals can be generated, for example, insubsequent circuitry, such as circuitry contained in the LOGIC_out blockof the Logic block (330) as depicted in FIG. 8.

With continued reference to the HS level shifter (325) according to thevarious embodiments of the present disclosure, FIGS. 6A and 6B are nowdescribed. As known to a person skilled in the art, and as mentioned inthe prior sections of the present disclosure, capacitively coupledsignals can force voltages on an output side of a capacitor to spikewith a distinctive decay time known as an RC time constant, where R andC are the resistive and capacitive values of a corresponding simple RCcircuit (e.g. R10-C1A as shown in FIGS. 4A, 5A and 6A). Such a voltagespike and a corresponding decay time which can alter, for example, apulse shape at any of the nodes CUvss, CUvdd, CDvss and CDvdd, can causeseveral issues in the operation of the HS level shifter (325) accordingto the various embodiments presented in the prior sections, as describedbelow.

As previously mentioned, negative or positive pulses can be forced ontoV_(SS) or V_(DD), respectively. To control this effect, and according toa further embodiment of the present disclosure, a clamping circuit(clamp) can be added to the HS level shifter (325), as shown in FIG. 6A(one clamp per node), which actively limits the signals at nodes CUvss,CUvdd, CDvss and CDvdd to be between V_(SS) and V_(DD) for all values ofV_(SS) (as a voltage value of V_(SS), tied to common node SW, can movefrom GND level to V_(IN) level). The specific embodiment of the clampingcircuit is described below.

The pulse signals at nodes CUvss, CUvdd, CDvss and CDvdd can be appliedto logic gates to latch their values and to make them square wave innature so as to allow control, for example, of the low side and highside high voltage stacked transistors T1, T2 of FIGS. 3A-3B. Asmentioned above, rising or falling V_(SS) or V_(DD) value (as functionof the voltage level at common node SW) can cause false pulses at nodesCUvss, CUvdd, CDvss and CDvdd, as the rising or falling level of V_(SS)or V_(DD) is directly coupled to these nodes through resistors R11, R10,R13 and R12 respectively, and delayed due to an associated RC timeconstant provided by the corresponding node capacitor C1B, C1A, C2B andC2A respectively. Such delay due to a node's RC time constant can createtransition pulses at gates of a transistor which in turn can generatefalse transitions at the output signal HS_out.

For example, considering the signal at node CUvdd, connected to the gateG2 of transistor M2, at a steady state level of V_(DD). As V_(SS) andV_(DD) rise, as depicted in FIG. 6E, the voltage at node CUvdd followsan RC time constant as indicated by the dotted line V_(G2) in FIG. 6E.Such voltage starts and ends with a corresponding steady state valuewhich corresponds to a high level, but in between the steady states, thevoltage transitions and can fall at voltage levels below or equal to theV_(SS) level, as indicated by point V_(G2A) in FIG. 6E. Such transitionof the voltage level of the signal at node CUvdd from the steady statehigh, to a transitional state low, and back to a steady state high, cantherefore create false negative pulses at the gate of transistor M2,which in turn can corrupt the timing control signal at output nodeHS_out. The person skilled in the art will understand that similar falsepulses (positive pulses) can be observed during a falling level of theV_(SS) and V_(DD) voltages at nodes which have a low level steady statevalue, such as node CUvss, and as indicated in FIG. 6D.

The logic to ensure that no false triggers occur (e.g. due to falsepulses) is discussed with reference to FIG. 7A which is later described,but it starts by inverting the signals at nodes CUvss and CDvss withinverters, as shown for the case of CUvss in FIG. 6B, where theinverters are composed of transistors M1 and M0, respectively, and theirload resistors R61 and R62, respectively, prior to feeding the resultantsignal to gates of subsequent logic. Such inversion of signals at nodesCUvss and CDvss is performed in order to get signals of a desiredpolarity for subsequent processing and provide complementary signalsthat enable a solution to false triggering due to false pulses. Theother nodes, CUvdd and CDvdd, are applied directly to gates ofsubsequent logic, as depicted in FIG. 7A, and can have the same issue asdescribed here with respect to the signals at nodes CUvss and CDvss.However, by applying complementary signal pairs CUvss/CDvdd andCDvss/CUvdd to logic gates M4/M5 and M2/M3, respectively, false triggerson either rising or falling V_(SS) are prevented.

With continued reference to FIG. 6B, and as mentioned above, the nodeCUvss (denoted G1 in FIG. 6G later described) at the gate of transistorM1 can have a different time constant (e.g. due to a differentequivalent RC circuit) than a time constant associated with a switchinglevel of V_(SS) and V_(DD) (i.e. Vdd₂+SW). The same difference in timeconstants can also apply to node CUvdd (denoted G2 in FIG. 6G laterdescribed) at the gate of transistor M2 with respect to the switchinglevel of V_(SS) or V_(DD). Therefore, due to such different timeconstants, an excessive voltage between the gate terminal of, forexample, transistor M1, and V_(SS) (e.g. reference potential) can occur,that exceeds the reliable operating voltage of the gate oxide layer oftransistor M1 (e.g. V_(DD)-V_(SS)). As shown in FIGS. 6C and 6D forfalling levels of V_(SS) and V_(DD), such high voltage can occur whenthe gate node (e.g. V_(G1) of M1, V_(G2) of M2 depicted in FIGS. 6C and6D respectively) is at an instantaneous voltage (V_(G1A), V_(G2A)) whichis above V_(DD). Similarly, as shown in FIGS. 6E and 6F for risinglevels of V_(SS) and V_(DD), such high voltage can occur when the gatenode (e.g. V_(G1) of M1, V_(G2) of M2 depicted in FIGS. 6E and 6Frespectively) is at an instantaneous voltage (V_(G1A), V_(G2A)) which isbelow V_(SS). Therefore, the clamping circuit according to theembodiment of the present disclosure can provide protection to the levelshifter circuitry by preventing the instantaneous voltages at nodesCUvss, CUvdd, CDvss and CDvdd from being outside the range defined byV_(SS) and V_(DD) (where V_(SS)=SW and V_(DD)=Vdd2+SW).

An exemplary embodiment of a clamping circuit for use in the HS levelshifter (325) of FIGS. 6A-6B is shown in FIG. 6G, where two identicalclamping circuits 610 and 620 are used to protect the gates oftransistors M2 and M1 respectively. It is pointed out that a personskilled in the art readily knows that other clamping circuits arepossible and that the exemplary embodiment of the clamping circuit (610,620) presented herein should not be construed as limiting the scope ofthe HS level shifter according to the various embodiments of the presentdisclosure. As shown in FIG. 6G, the exemplary clamping circuit (610,620) can consist of four MOSFETS, 2 n-type (e.g. (M11 n, M12 n) and (M21n, M22 n)) and 2 p-type (e.g. (M11 p, M12 p) and (M21 p, M22 p)). It isassumed for the purposes of describing the circuit that the two n-typeand two p-type transistors are matched to each other in current handlingcapability (e.g. strength, drive), but opposite in polarity.

With continued reference to the exemplary clamping circuit (610, 620)shown in FIG. 6G, one of each type of the four MOSFETs of each clampingcircuit has its gate tied to its drain (e.g. (M12 n, M12 p) of (620),and (M22 n, M22 p) of (610)), thereby putting them into the well-knowndiode-connected mode, which means that each of the diode-connectedtransistors (M12 n, M12 p) of (620), and (M22 n, M22 p) of (610) haveI-V characteristics equivalent to those of a diode with a forwardvoltage, Vf, equal to the threshold voltage of the constituent MOSFET.Since each of the diode-connected transistors (M12 n, M12 p, M22 n, M22p) is also connected to the gate of a corresponding same type transistor(M11 n, M11 p, M21 n, M21 p), such as, for example, diode-connected M22p transistor connected to the gate of the same type transistor M21 p,and diode-connected M22 n transistor connected to the gate of the sametype transistor M21 n, the gate of the corresponding same typetransistor (M11 n, M11 p, M21 n, M21 p) is held at the diode forwardvoltage, Vf. This essentially clamps the gate voltage on the n-typetransistors (M11 n, M21 n) and the p-type transistors (M11 p, M21 p) attheir threshold voltage above V_(SS) or below V_(DD), respectively.

Reference will now be made to the two p-type transistors (M21 p, M22 p)of the top clamping circuit (610) shown in FIG. 6G. With the gatevoltage of transistor M21 p held at a threshold voltage below V_(DD),transistor M21 p starts to conduct when its source voltage rises aboveV_(DD) (e.g. Vdd2+SW). This effectively clamps the source of transistorM21 p at or below V_(DD), and therefore clamps the gate voltage at nodeG2 of the transistor M2 to be at or below V_(DD).

The two n-type transistors (M21 n, M22 n) of the top clamping circuit(610) shown in FIG. 6G behave in the same way as the two p-typetransistors (M21 p, M22 p), except with positive threshold voltage(V_(th)) with respect to V_(SS). More specifically, when the voltage atthe gate node G2 of transistor M2 drops below V_(SS), the n-typetransistor M21 n conducts since its source drops below V_(SS) andtherefore its gate to source voltage, Vgs, exceeds its threshold voltageand therefore transistor M21 n conducts, thereby clamping the gate oftransistor M2 to operate at or above the voltage level of V_(SS).

Put together, the exemplary clamping circuit (610) shown in FIG. 6Gensures that the gate of transistor M2 does not operate outside therange defined by V_(SS) and V_(DD), as needed to ensure that the gatesof any follow-on logic gates cannot see excess voltage as caused, forexample, by the time constant difference of various nodes, as describedin detail above and depicted in FIGS. 6C-6F. This is true before, duringand after any rise or fall in levels of V_(SS) and V_(DD), in anabsolute sense (as both these voltages depend on the switching voltageat node SW). In other words, as V_(SS) and V_(DD) charge up and down,the gates of the clamped circuits are held at all time in the rangeV_(SS) to V_(DD), thereby ensuring reliable operation of the HS levelshifter circuit according to the various embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

A same clamping circuit (620) composed of transistors (M1 n, M12 n, M11p, M12 p) can be applied to the gate of transistor M1 as depicted in thelower block of FIG. 6G. A same clamping circuit can also be used in allthe blocks labeled “clamp” in FIGS. 6A, 6B, 7A and 8 to protect thevarious transistor devices used in these blocks.

The HS Level Shifting circuit (325) enables low voltage signals andtransistors to control high voltage devices and nodes (e.g. T1, T2,V_(IN)). FIGS. 7A-7B and FIG. 8 show auxiliary circuitry that completesthe high side control function (e.g. block (355)) in a manner thatenables control of the high voltage stacked transistor devices (e.g.DC/DC converter) shown in FIGS. 3A-3B.

FIG. 7A shows logic circuitry, which can be used in the Logic block(330) of the gate driver (310) depicted in FIGS. 3A-3B, that convertsthe pulsed signals at nodes CUvss, CUvdd, CDvss and CDvdd into squarewave logic needed to turn ON and OFF the LS transistor T1 and the HStransistor T2 of the high voltage stacked GaN FETs of FIGS. 3A-3B.Transistor stack (M2, M3) represent a 2-input NAND gate with active lowinputs (output is HI if both inputs are LOW), as does transistor stack(M4, M5), which in combination with the inverters M0 and M1 provide thelogic to generate a pulse signal at the UP and DN nodes when pulses arepresent at CUvdd and CDvss or at CUVss and CDvdd.

Transistors M2 and M3 of FIG. 7A pull node labeled UP to HI (e.g.V_(DD)) level when CUvdd and inverse of CDvss are both LOW (e.g. atV_(SS) level). Since CDvss is HI when inverse of CDvss is LOW, UP nodeonly goes HI when there is a negative pulse on CUvdd and a positivepulse on CDvss. A rising V_(SS) (e.g. SW) and V_(DD) (e.g. Vdd2+SW) caninduce false positive pulses at node CDvss and can have no effect onnode CUvdd, and likewise, a falling V_(SS) (e.g. SW) and V_(DD) (e.g.Vdd2+SW) can induce false negative pulses at node CUvdd and can have noeffect on node CDvss. Since signal at node UP goes HI only when there isa negative pulse on CUvdd and a positive pulse on CDvss, and sinceneither a rising nor a falling V_(SS) (e.g. SW) and V_(DD) (e.g.Vdd2+SW) can simultaneously create opposite going pulses at nodes CDvssand CUvdd, false triggers (pulses) at node UP due to rising/fallingV_(SS) and V_(DD) are avoided.

With continued reference to FIG. 7A, transistor stack (M4, M5)represents a 2-input NAND gate with active low inputs. M4 and M5 pullnode labelled DN to a HI (e.g. V_(DD)) level when CDvdd and inverse ofCUvss are both LOW. Since M5 gate voltage is low when CUvss is HI, DNnode only goes HI when there is a negative pulse on CDvdd and a positivepulse on CUvss. A rising V_(SS) (e.g. SW) and V_(DD) (e.g. Vdd2+SW) caninduce false positive pulses at node CUvss and can have no effect onnode CDvdd, and likewise, a falling V_(SS) (e.g. SW) and V_(DD) (e.g.Vdd2+SW) can induce false negative pulses at node CDvdd and can have noeffect on node CUvss. Since signal at node DN goes HI only when there isa negative pulse on CDvdd and a positive pulse on CUvss, and sinceneither a rising nor a falling V_(SS) and V_(DD) can simultaneouslycreate opposite going pulses at nodes CDvdd and CUvss, false triggers(pulses) at node DN due to rising/falling V_(SS) and V_(DD) are avoided.This completes the explanation of how the level shifter according to thevarious embodiments of the present disclosure ensures against falsetriggers due to rising/falling of V_(SS) and V_(DD). As discussed in theabove sections of the present disclosure, a factor contributing to theimmunity of the level shifter according to the various embodiments ofthe present disclosure with respect to possible false triggering due tothe shifting nature of the supply and reference voltages (V_(DD) andV_(SS)) to the level shifter, is the condition that only two pulses ofopposite polarities can trigger an output pulse event at either the UPor the DN nodes.

FIG. 7B shows the timing diagram for the circuitry shown in FIG. 7A. Asshown in FIG. 7B, both signals at the UP and DN nodes are square wavesignals containing timing information obtained from the input HX signalto initiate turning ON or OFF the high side GaN FET, T2, of FIGS. 3A-3B,respectively.

As can be seen in the timing diagram of FIG. 7B, one edge (rising) ofthe input signal HX causes CUvdd, which is normally HI, to go LOW, andcauses CDvss, which is normally LOW, to go HI, therefore in combination,causing the signal at the UP node to transition from its normally LOWstate to a HI state. Similarly, the opposite edge (falling) of the inputsignal HX causes CDvdd, which is normally HI, to go LOW, and causesCUvss, which is normally LOW, to go HI, therefore in combination,causing the signal at the DN node to transition from its normal LOWstate to a HI state. As a result, LOW to HI transitions of signals atthe UP and DN nodes represent timing information of the input HX signalrespectively associated with rising and falling edges of the input HXsignal.

FIG. 8 adds in a final logic block (LOGIC_out), which can be used in theLogic block (330) of the HS level shifter (325) of the gate driver (310)depicted in FIGS. 3A-3B, that converts the timing information at the UPand DN nodes into one ON and OFF signal at the HS_out terminal of thefinal logic block LOGIC_out. In particular, such LOGIC_out block canconvert the timing information in the UP and DN pulses into a signal(HS_out) which has the same duty cycle as the input signal HX, as can beseen in FIG. 7B. This can be achieved, for example, by a simple SRflip-flop logic, as known to the skilled person, which flips state ofits output with each input pulse. As can be seen in the timing diagramdepicted in FIG. 7B, the rising edge of the HS_out signal output by theLOGIC_out block corresponds to the concurrent detection of pulses (e.g.where active region of the pulses overlap, active region of a positivepulse signal being the region where the signal is in a high state, andactive region of a negative pulse signal being the region where thesignal is in a low state) of opposite polarities at the CDvss and CUvddnodes which generate the UP pulse. Similarly, the falling edge of theHS_out signal output by the LOGIC_out block corresponds to theconcurrent detection of pulses of opposite polarities at the CDvdd andCUvss nodes which generate the DN signal. The signal at HS_out is alevel-shifted in-phase version of the IN signal provided at the inputterminal IN of the gate driver circuit (310) of FIGS. 3A-3B (e.g.originated in a PWM not shown, but discussed above) whose timing (e.g.edge to edge distance) and level are intended to control the turning ONand OFF of the high side GaN FET T2. As mentioned in the above sectionsof the present disclosure, the HS_out signal output by the LOGIC_outblock is fed to the HS output driver (355) for conversion to an HS_out(equivalent) signal which contains the exact same timing information butwith the drive and amplitude required to drive the high side GaN FET T2(thereby denoting both signals HS_out). Combination of the HS_out signalwith the LS_out signal for the low side GaN FET T1 creates the desiredON percentage (e.g. V_(IN) versus GND) at the common node SW. Aspreviously mentioned in the present disclosure, the signal at node SW isthe DC/DC converter output node (prior to filtering), pulled up toV_(IN) or pulled down to GND per instructions from the IN signal (e.g.PWM). A person skilled in the art can appreciate that all the signalsshown in FIG. 7B have low voltage logic swings (such as being bounded byV_(SS) and V_(DD)) except for signal at node SW, which has a HI level ofV_(IN) and a LOW level of GND.

FIG. 9 depicts a further embodiment of a gate driver (910) of thepresent disclosure which uses a level shifter similar to the HS levelshifter (325) according to the various previous embodiments presentedabove for a low side control path of the low side high voltagetransistor T1 (960) and a high side control path of the high side highvoltage transistor T2 (325). This exemplary approach according to anembodiment of the present disclosure can ensure that signal paths for acontrol signal at the input IN terminal of the gate driver (910) to eachof the GaN FETs T1 and T2 have equal propagation delays and signallevels (e.g. attenuation). In other words, the high side control pathcomprising the HS level shifter (325) and the HS output driver (355) hasa same propagation delay as the low side control path comprising the LSlevel shifter (960) and the LS output driver (365), where all circuits(325, 355, 365, 960) use exclusively low (breakdown) voltagetransistors. In particular, the low side level shifter (960) can have asame input coupling stage of the input timing signal LX as the inputcoupling stage of the high side level shifter (325). As mentioned in theabove sections of the present disclosure, such input coupling stage canbe a non-galvanic coupling, such as, for example, a capacitive coupling(e.g. DC blocking) used for edge detection and DC blocking. The personskilled in the art can appreciate that equalizing delay of the HS and LSpaths (e.g. controlling an associated signal delay and attenuation) canhelp control a dead time or an overlap time between the GaN FETs (e.g.time during which T1 and T2 are ON simultaneously) for an increasedperformance of the implementation. It is an exemplary embodiment of thecurrent invention to have two level shifter circuits (e.g. 325, 960).Such exemplary implementation should not be construed as limiting thescope of the present teachings, as the person skilled in the art readilyrealizes other exemplary implementations using one or more such levelshifter (325) can be possible.

The person skilled in the art readily realizes that despite carefuldesign and layout of the gate driver (310) and (910) depicted in FIG. 3Band FIG. 9 respectively, difference in propagation delays due, forexample, to layout and/or component characteristics can arise betweenthe low side and high side control paths. Furthermore, in some cases adifference in responses (e.g. turn ON to turn OFF, and vice versa) ofthe GaN FETs T1 and T2 can provide an additional undesired effect.

In some cases it may be desirable to control the difference inpropagation delays between the low side control path and high sidecontrol path, and/or to compensate for the difference in responsesbetween the GaN FETs T1 and T2. Accordingly, such control/compensationcan be provided by a dead time control circuit according to the variousembodiments of the present disclosure described below.

The dead time control circuit (dead time controller) according to thepresent disclosure enables to control a difference in timing between thetwo control signals HS_out, of the high side control path, and LS_out,of the low side control path. In particular, the dead time controlleraccording to the various embodiments of the present disclosure cancontrol a relative timing (time difference) between the edges of thecontrol signals HS_out and LS_out, such as, for example, between twocorresponding edges that turn ON transistors T1 and T2, and twocorresponding edges that turn OFF transistors T1 and T2. In someembodiments, such control can be performed independently for each of thetwo control signals.

In some embodiments it can be desirable to control the low side and highside transistors T1 and T2 so as during operation, a period of timeduring which both transistors T1 and T2 are effectively ON (overlaptime) is reduced. In some preferred embodiments, the overlap time iseliminated and replaced by a dead time. As used herein, dead time refersto a period of time during which the low side transistor T1 and the highside transistor T2 are simultaneously OFF.

By providing a dead time, via a dead time controller according to thepresent disclosure, shoot through current in a power converter, such asthe DC voltage conversion circuit depicted in FIGS. 3A-3B and FIG. 9,can be prevented. Shoot through current reduces the efficiency of the DCconverter and can potentially damage the devices (T1, T2) being driven.To be effective, dead time control should occur with small propagationdelay, consume relatively low power and small area. Due to systemvariations over manufacturing, applications and other variables, it isdesirable that the dead time control be programmable, either at thefactory or in the field.

As mentioned above, and with further reference to FIG. 3B, for the DCvoltage conversion circuit (300) to operate in an efficient and reliablemanner, it is desirable that the low side transistor T1 and the highside transistor T2 are not on at the same time, or a short circuit canexist between V_(IN) and GND (causing the shoot through current),thereby wasting power and potentially damaging the circuit and thetransistor devices T1 and T2. Due to the difference in propagation delaybetween the low side control path and the high side control path asdescribed above, often caused by layout, manufacturing or othervariations, an ON control signal (e.g. an edge of the LS_out) at T1 canarrive before its complementary OFF signal (e.g. an edge of the HS_out)arrives at T2, therefore providing an overlap time during which bothtransistors T1 and T1 are ON. During the overlap time, both transistorsare ON, causing the problems noted above.

FIG. 10 shows a modified version of the block diagram of the gate drivercircuit (310) of FIG. 3B. In particular, the gate driver circuit (1010)of FIG. 10 according to the present disclosure is fitted with a deadtime controller (1025) to provide a dead time control as discussedabove. It should be noted that common blocks in the circuits (310) and(1010) of FIG. 3B and FIG. 10, identified by same labels and/orreference designators, perform same functionalities in the respectivecircuits.

As can be seen in FIG. 10, the dead time controller (1025) is part of acommon input logic block (1015) which operates between the low voltagesupply Vdd1 and the reference potential GND, similarly to block (315) ofFIG. 3B discussed above. Therefore, the dead time controller (1025)according to the various embodiments of the present disclosure compriseslow voltage transistors operating within their breakdown voltages.Similarly to the common input logic block (315) of FIG. 3B describedabove, capacitive coupling (e.g. as provided by the DC blocking edgedetection circuit 320) is used for edge detection, and provides DCblocking between the HS level shifter (325) of FIG. 10 and the commoninput logic block (1015) while providing relevant control timinginformation associated to the input signal IN to the HS level shifter(325), where the timing information associated to the input signal isfurther adjusted by the dead time controller (1025).

According to one exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure and asdescribed below, adjustment of the dead time controller can be providedby resistors RD_(HL) and RD_(LH) depicted in FIG. 10. A filter (1035) atthe common output node SW of the two transistors T1 and T2 can be usedto provide a DC voltage based on a duty cycle of the signal at SW.According to an exemplary embodiment, the filter (1035) can comprise aseries inductor (L₁₁) and a shunted capacitor (C₁₁) to realize a lowpass filter at a desired cut off frequency. According to someembodiments of the present disclosure one of, or both, of the capacitorand the inductor can be variable, such as to provide a differentinductance/capacitance based on a control signal (data line) to thevariable capacitor/inductor. Digitally tunable capacitors (DTCs) anddigitally tunable inductors (DTLs) are some exemplary cases of suchvariable components. More information on DTCs and DTLs can be found, forexample, in PCT publication number WO2009/108391 entitled “Method andApparatus for use in Digitally Tuning a Capacitor in an IntegratedCircuit Device”, published on Sep. 3, 2009, and in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/595,893, entitled “Methods and Apparatuses forUse in Tuning Reactance in a Circuit Device”, filed on Aug. 27, 2012,the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in theirentirety.

FIG. 11 shows more details of the common input logic block (1015)comprising the dead time controller (1025) placed between the inputbuffer (1026) and the logic block (1027). Input signal IN is provided tothe input buffer (1026) which provides a buffered version of the inputsignal, DT_IN, to the dead time controller (1025) for dead timeadjustment. In turn, the dead time controller (1025) adjusts the edgesof the DT_IN signal to provide a low side dead time adjusted signalDT_LX and a high side dead time adjusted signal DT_HX, based on theresistance value of resistors RD_(HL) and RD_(LH). The dead timeadjusted signal are then fed to the logic block (1027) which generatessignal LX, corresponding to the signal DT_LX, to provide timing controlof the low side transistor T1, and signal HX, corresponding to thesignal DT_HX, to provide timing control of the high side transistor T2.Various functions of the logic block (1027) are controlled via controlsignals CNTL provided to the logic block (1027). According to anexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, under control of thecontrol signals CNTL, the logic block (1027) passes or blocks the DT_LXand DT_HX signals generated by the dead time controller (1025) to/from anext stage of the processing blocks of the gate driver circuit (1010)depicted in FIG. 10. The person skilled in the art will realize thatother logic functions and corresponding signals may be required forother system level operations of the gate driver circuit (1010) whichfor the sake of clarity in the functional description of the dead timecontroller are not shown in FIGS. 10 and 11.

As seen in FIGS. 10 and 11, and according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure, the dead time control circuit (1025) produces adifferential output with the desired dead time based on the single endedinput signal, DT_IN. According to the exemplary embodiment depicted inFIGS. 10 and 11, the dead time controller (1025) can use two externalresistors, RD_(LH) and RD_(HL). These resistors set the desired deadtime, as will be described below. The RD_(HL) resistor sets the deadtime when the HS_out signal transitions to a low state (from a highstate) and the LS_out signal transitions to a high state (from a lowstate), whereas RD_(LH) sets the dead-time when the LS_out signaltransitions to a low state and the HS_out signal transitions to a highstate. By reading the following paragraphs of the present disclosure itwould become clear to the person skilled in the art that usage ofresistors RD_(LH) and RD_(HL) is merely one exemplary embodiment ofproviding edge adjustments for the purpose of the dead time control, andsuch exemplary embodiment should not be construed as limiting the scopeof what the inventors consider to be their invention.

As discussed above, since V_(IN) can be a large voltage, e.g. 10-100Vand higher, and an ON resistance R_(ON) of each of the GaN FETs (T1, T2)is low, e.g. <1Ω, in order not to damage transistors T1 and T2, it isdesirable that such transistors not be ON (conducting) at the same time,or equivalently, that HS_out and LS_out signals not be high at the sametime, as shown in FIG. 12A, assuming that both transistors T1 and T2turn ON at the high level of the control signals HS_out and LS_out.Having both transistors, T1 and T2, ON at the same time, leads to verylarge shoot-through currents in the transistors. This can have theundesired effect of dramatically reducing the efficiency of the circuit(1000) and potentially damage T1 and T2. As noted above, careful controlof the timing (e.g. relative edge positions) of LS_out and HS_outsignals can prevent such undesired effect.

FIG. 12A shows the timing relationship between the high side controlsignal, HS_out, and the low side control signal, LS_out. As discussedearlier, such timing can be adjusted by the dead time control circuitaccording to the present disclosure. As can be seen in FIG. 12A, signalHS_out is high during a time interval T2 _(ON), corresponding to an ONstate of the high side transistor T2, and low during a time interval T2_(OFF), corresponding to an OFF state of the high side transistor T2.Similarly, signal LS_out is high during a time interval T1 _(ON),corresponding to an ON state of the low side transistor T1, and lowduring a time interval T1 _(OFF), corresponding to an OFF state of thelow side transistor T1.

With further reference to the timing relationship of FIG. 12A, one cansee that time intervals T2 _(ON) and T1 _(ON) are separated by non-zerotime intervals t_(DLH) and t_(DHL). Such non-zero time intervals, eachdefine a positive dead time between the timing controls of the high sideand the low side transistors T2 and T1. That is, assuming that bothtransistors T1 and T2 have a same turn ON time and a same turn OFF time,their ON states will not overlap, similar to the timing diagram of theassociated control signals depicted in FIG. 12A. It should be noted thatthe dead time controller according to the present disclosure cangenerate positive and negative (described below) dead times, where thetime intervals t_(DLH) and t_(DHL) are not necessarily of a same value.

FIG. 12B shows the timing relationship between the high side controlsignal, HS_out, and the low side control signal, LS_out, for a positivedead time (i.e, t_(DLH) and t_(DHL) are both positive). According to aconvention of the present disclosure, a positive dead time is defined bya positive time interval t_(DLH) and/or a positive time intervalt_(DHL), where such time intervals are measured as the difference intiming position of a turn-ON transition (e.g. at times t₂, t₄) of acontrol signal and a turn-OFF transition (e.g. at times t₁ and t₃) ofthe alternate control signal. Accordingly, t_(DHL) is the time intervalbetween the rising transition of the low side control signal LS_out (attime t₄) and the falling transition of the high side control signalHS_out (at time t₃), therefore t_(DHL)=(t₄−t₃). Similarly, t_(DLH) isthe time interval between the rising transition of the high side controlsignal HS_out (at time t2) and the falling transition of the low sidecontrol signal LS_out (at time t₁), therefore t_(DLH)=(t₂−t₁).

Using the above convention, the timing diagram of FIG. 12B showspositive dead time for both the high side and the low side paths,whereas the timing diagram of FIG. 12C shows negative dead time for bothpaths. As stated above, positive dead time at LS_out (LS_out risingtransition comes after HS_out falling transition) and HS_out (HS_outrising transition comes after LS_out falling transition) can be apreferred condition for operating the high voltage transistors T1 andT2. In some cases where, for example, the high side and low side pathshave a fix delay skew between them, or the transistors T1 and T2 havedifferent characteristics, it may be desirable to provide a negativedead time at one of, or both, of the LS_out and HS_out signals.Accordingly, the dead time controller according to the presentdisclosure enables both positive and negative dead times. Since theprimary usage is typically with a positive dead time, unless otherwisestated, the descriptions below should be understood to be for positivedead time.

To clarify the basic operation of the dead time controller of thepresent disclosure, it is assumed that the low side and high side pathshave equal propagation delays, which means the dead time between theDT_HX and DT_LX signals depicted in FIG. 10 (and FIG. 11) equals thedead time between the HS_out and LS_out signals depicted in FIG. 10. Forthe case of unequal propagation delays between the high side and the lowside paths, the adjusting function of the dead time control circuit ofthe present disclosure will be understood by a person skilled in the artwho will recognize that resistor values RD_(HL) and RD_(LH) will requireadjustment to accommodate the difference.

As described above, the DC output of the overall circuit of FIG. 10obtained after filtering by the low pass filter (1035), comprising L₁₁and C₁₁, is proportional to the duty cycle at the common output node SW,hence the duty cycle of the high side dead time adjusted signal DT_HX isessentially equal to the duty cycle of the input signal IN (thus ofDT_IN). For the high side signal DT_HX to have the same duty cycle ofthe input signal IN, the time intervals t_(DHSR) and t_(DHSF), asdefined below in FIG. 13, are essentially equal. Again, to simplify thebasic description of the circuit while maintaining the desired DC outputvoltage, and therefore a corresponding desired duty cycle at the commonoutput node SW, dead time adjustments will be confined to the low sidecircuitry, while the high side circuitry will be set to follow thedesired duty cycle. In other words, under control of the dead timecontroller (1025) of the gate driver circuit (1010), the high sidetransistor T2 is ON for a same time duration (T2 _(ON) of FIG. 12A laterdescribed) as an ON time of an output of a pulse width modulatorrepresenting the average ON/OFF ratio of the signal at the common outputnode SW represented by the input signal IN to the gate drive circuit(1010).

FIG. 13 shows the relative timing of the dead time controller signalsaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure. These signalsinclude the input signal to the dead time controller, DT_IN, its highside output signal, DT_HX, and its low side output signal, DT_LX. Asstated above, to ensure the proper output DC voltage, the duty cycle, asset by the ON duration of the HS transistor T2, should equal the dutycycle of DT_IN. The timing diagram of the dead time controller depictedin FIG. 13 ensures that both transistors are not ON at the same timewhile providing a desired DC output voltage defined by the duty cycle ofthe input signal, IN, and therefore of the input signal to the dead timecontroller, DT_IN.

As shown in the timing diagram depicted in FIG. 13, the rising edge ofDT_LX is delayed, with respect to the falling edge of DT_HX, by a timeinterval of length t_(DHL), while the falling edge of DT_LX is advanced,with respect to the rising edge of DT_HX, by a time interval of lengtht_(DLH). This ensures a desired operation where no overlap between an ONstate of the HS control signal and an ON state of the LS control signalexist. Such desired operation in the exemplary embodiment depicted bythe associated timing diagram of FIG. 13 provides positive dead times(t_(DHL), t_(DLH)) at both transitions of the high side control signal.As mentioned above, there may be a desire to create a negative deadtime, in which case a person skilled in the art will recognize that therising and falling edges would be adjusted in opposite directions tothose described for the positive dead time control described herein andwith reference to FIG. 13.

Having described the overall function of dead time controller accordingto some embodiments of the present disclosure, an exemplary embodimentis now described in detail. A person skilled in the art will recognizethat other embodiments and variations thereof are possible to providethe functionality of the dead time controller according to the presentdisclosure, and the following exemplary embodiment should not beconsidered as limiting what the inventors considers to be theirinvention.

An exemplary circuital representation (1400) of the dead time controller(1025 of FIGS. 10-11) according the present disclosure is shown in FIG.14. The dead time control circuit (1400) comprises two similar parallelprocessing paths, each for processing a same input signal DT_IN togenerate one of the high side and the low side timing control signal. Atiming diagram of signals at various points HS_A, HS_B, HS_C of the highside processing path, as indicated in FIG. 14, is provided in FIG. 15A.Similarly, a timing diagram of signals at various points LS_A, LS_B,LS_C of the low side processing path, as indicated in FIG. 14, isprovided in FIG. 15B. As can be seen in FIG. 14, the exemplary dead timecontrol circuit (1400) comprises a basic processing circuit (1410 a-1410d) which comprises a current source (I0-I3), a transistor (M00-M03), acapacitor (C0-C3), and a comparator (U0-U3). Each of the two processingpaths comprises two such basic processing circuits cascaded; the highside processing path comprises basic processing circuits (1410 a, 1410b), and the low side processing path comprises basic processing circuits(1410 c, 1410 d).

With continued reference to FIG. 14, the first basic processing circuit(1410 a) of the high side processing path takes the input signal DT_INas input, via its input transistor M01, and feeds a non-inverting outputof the associated comparator U1 to the input transistor M03 of thecascaded second basic processing unit (1410 b). In turn, the secondbasic processing unit (1410 b) processes its input to generate the highside dead time adjusted control signal DT_HX, obtained at thenon-inverting output of the associated comparator U3. In a similarfashion, the first basic processing circuit (1410 c) of the low sideprocessing path takes the input signal DT_IN as input, via its inputtransistor M00, and feeds an inverting output of the associatedcomparator U0 to the input transistor M02 of the cascaded second basicprocessing unit (1410 d). In turn, the second basic processing unit(1410 d) processes its input to generate the low side dead time adjustedcontrol signal DT_LX, obtained at the non-inverting output of theassociated comparator U2.

By describing the function of the basic processing circuit (1410 c)provided by I0, M00, C0 and U0, a person skilled in the art willrecognize that each of the other similar combinations (1410 a-1410 c)functions in the same manner. The person skilled in the art will alsorecognize that magnitude of currents associated to the current sources(I0-I3) could be set internally or externally, with respect to anintegrated circuit comprising the dead time controller, throughresistors (or other means) such as (external) resistors RDHL and RDLHshown in FIGS. 10-11. The basic description, immediately following, alsoignores comparator delays which will be discussed subsequently.

With reference to the basic processing circuit (1410 c) of FIG. 14,current source I0 forces a current that can only flow through thetransistor M00 or capacitor C0 since the non-inverting input tocomparator U0, which is connected to the common node LS_A of transistorM00 and current source I0, is a high impedance input that cannot sinkthe current I0.

When the input signal DT_IN to the circuit (1410 c) is in a high state,transistor M00 is in an ON state (conducting), pulling down node LS_Awhile current from the current source I0 flows to ground through theconducting transistor M00, thereby bypassing capacitor C0. Conversely,when input signal DT_IN to the circuit (1410 c) is in a low state,transistor M00 is in an OFF state (non-conducting), and current from thecurrent source I0 flows through the capacitor C0, thereby charging thecapacitor C0 with a constant current and pulling node LS_A high. Aperson skilled in the art will recognize that charging the capacitor C0with a constant current (from the constant current source I0), willgenerate a voltage rise across the capacitor C0, and therefore at nodeLS_A, in a linear fashion, as shown in FIG. 15A for node LS_A. As can beseen in FIG. 15A, the slope S_(LSA) associated to the low to hightransition of the LS_A node is of (substantially) constant value.

With further reference to the basic processing circuit (1410 c) of FIG.14 and the associated timing diagram of FIG. 15A, node LS_A drives oneinput (e.g. non-inverting) of the comparator U0 while the other input(inverting) of the comparator U0 is connected to a reference voltageVref. When the voltage at node LS_A reaches the level of the referencevoltage Vref, the inverting output node of the comparator U0, denotedLS_B in FIG. 14, switches state. As shown in FIG. 15A, such switching atthe node LS_B occurs at a time, delayed with respect to the trailingedge of the input signal DT_IN, which is determined by the slope S_(L)SAof the voltage rise at LS_A (which is set by C0/I0) and the voltageVref. Therefore, the signal at node LS_B is created via two logicinversions (through transistor M00 and comparator U0) of the DT_IN inputsignal and a delayed trailing edge with respect to the trailing edge ofthe DT_IN signal. As can be seen in FIG. 15A, the signal at node LS_Bhas a same polarity as the input signal DT_IN and has its trailing edgedelayed with respect to the trailing edge of DT_IN by an amountdetermined by the slope S_(LSA) of the signal at node LS_A (and Vref,not shown in FIG. 15A).

Continuing through the low side signal path of the exemplary dead timecontroller (1400), a similar process repeats itself with I2, M02 and C2of the basic processing circuit (1410 d), with the difference that thenon-inverting output of the comparator U2 is used to provide the outputDT_LX which therefore has an inverted polarity with respect to its inputsignal (at node LS_B, and therefore has an inverted polarity withrespect to DT_IN). There are three logical inversions in the low sideprocessing path of the input signal DT_IN, one each at transistor M00,comparator U0 and transistor M02, resulting in a net inversion of thesignal DT_LX as compared to DT_IN. As can be seen in FIG. 15A for nodeDT_LX, the proper time delay, with respect to DT_IN, is added to theleading edge of DT_LX. In the low side path, comparator U0 is inverting.Current source I0 delays the falling edge of DT_IN, which becomes thefalling edge of LS_B. Then, the current source I2 delays the fallingedge of LS_B, via slope S_(LSC) at node LS_C, which becomes the risingedge of DT_LX. In the low side processing path the rising edge of DT_INis not delayed and becomes the falling edge of DT_LX since DT_IN getsinverted, as can be seen in FIG. 15A.

Functionality of the high side processing path (1410 a, 1410 b) of theexemplary dead time control circuit represented in FIG. 14 issubstantially the same as the functionality of the low side processingpath (1410 c, 1410 d) described above. However, comparator U1 used inthe high side processing path is non-inverting so that signals DT_IN andHS_B are out of phase, meaning that circuit (1410 a) and circuit (1410b) delay opposite edges of the input signal DT_IN via slopes S_(HSA) andS_(HSC) at nodes HS_A and HS_C respectively (see FIG. 15B). That is, ascan be seen in FIG. 15B, the basic processing circuit (1410 a) via itscircuit elements (I1, M01, C1) causes time delay on the trailing edge ofthe input signal DT_IN at node HS_A through slope S_(HSA), while thebasic processing circuit (1014 b) via its circuit elements (I3, M03, C3)causes time delay on the leading edge of the input signal DT_IN at nodeHS_C through slope S_(H)SC. As can be seen in the timing diagram of FIG.15B, assuming that constant current sources I1 and I3 output a samemagnitude current, and capacitance value of capacitors C1 and C3 areequal, both leading and trailing edges of the DT_IN signal are delayedby an equal amount, resulting in a same pulse width for signals DT_HXand DT_IN, while shifting the pulse corresponding to the DT_IN signal bya delay set by I1, C1 and Vref at DT_HX. According to some embodimentsof the present disclosure, maintaining pulse width of the high sidedriver (e.g. HS_out) is required for proper function of the DC voltageconverter depicted in FIG. 10.

In the exemplary embodiment of the dead time controller circuitaccording to the present disclosure depicted in FIG. 14, two delaycircuits per each side, (1410 a, 1410 b) for the high side and (1410 c,1410 d) for the low side, are used so that the duty cycle can bemaintained on the high side while the duty cycle is adjusted on the lowside, thereby creating a positive dead time which ensures that bothDT_HX and DT_LX signals are not high simultaneously (do not overlap).

As known to a person skilled in the art, the comparators U1-U3 used inthe exemplary dead time controller (1400) of FIG. 14 can introduce arelatively large propagation delay when used in the gate driver circuit(1010). In order to reduce the overall propagation delay of the gatedriver circuit (1010), it can be desirable to replace such comparatorswith alternative elements with lower propagation delays. It follows thataccording to a further embodiment of the present disclosure, suchpropagation delay is reduced by using inverters instead of thecomparators, as shown in FIG. 16.

FIG. 16 shows an exemplary dead time controller circuit (1600) accordingto an embodiment of the present disclosure based on the circuit (1400)of FIG. 14, where the comparators U0-U3 are replaced with inverters(H01-H32), thus improving the propagation delay of the dead timecontroller circuit. As can be seen in FIG. 16, a non-invertingcomparator of FIG. 14 is replaced with two cascaded inverters, and aninverting comparator of FIG. 14 is replaced with a single inverter. Forexample, non-inverting comparator U1 is replaced with cascaded inverters(H11, H12), non-inverting comparator U3 is replaced with cascadedinverters (H31, H32), non-inverting comparator U2 is replaced withcascaded inverters (H21, H22), and inverting comparator U0 is replacedwith single inverter H01.

As known to a person skilled in the art, a trip point associated with aninverter, the inverter trip point, can change with a process (P) used tofabricate the inverter, as well as with a voltage (V) applied to theinverter (e.g. biasing, supply) and an operating temperature (T) of theinverter. Such “PVT” characteristics of the inverter can thereforeaffect operation of the exemplary dead time controller circuitrepresented in FIG. 16. It follows that according to an embodiment ofthe present disclosure, the current sources (I0-I3) have output currentswhich are proportional to the trip point of the inverters (H01-H32). Itcan be assumed that given a same fabrication process of such inverters,corresponding trip points remain the same as a function of the PVT,since such inverters see a same bias/supply voltage (e.g. Vdd1) and areplaced in a very close physical proximity of each other and thereforesubjected to a same local temperature.

FIGS. 17A and 17B show current source circuits 1700A and 1700B accordingto further embodiments of the present disclosure which can providecurrents to the dead time controller circuit (1600) which arecompensated with respect to the PVT that causes a drift of the trippoint of the inverter circuits (H01-H32).

In FIG. 17A, an exemplary circuit is shown that ensures that the currentsources (I0, I1, I3) are proportional to the inverter trip point,causing the impact of a variable trip point on time delay, as describedabove, to be cancelled by the proportionally adjusted amount of currentin current sources (I0, I1, I3). The exemplary circuit represented inFIG. 17A achieves this by using a current mirror circuit (1710A)(comprising a reference current leg series connected with transistorM09, and one or more output mirrored legs I0, I1, I3) which mirrors acurrent going through the transistor M09 and the resistor RDLH. A personskilled in the art will realize that such current is equal to Vtrip ofthe inverter formed by M04 and M05 divided by the external resistorRDLH. As the inverter (M04, M05) is representative of the inverters(H01-H32) used in the exemplary dead time controller (1600), its trippoint varies similarly to (tracks) the trip point of inverters(H01-H32).

More specifically, it is commonly known that the biased inverter shownin FIG. 17A formed by M04 and M05 and connecting the common drain nodeof the transistors to the common gate node of the transistors, operatesat its trip point (as inverter is biased at or close to its trip pointvoltage), latter trip point voltage being proportional to PVT asdescribed above. This voltage serves as a reference voltage for theoperational amplifier OP1 which takes its driven voltage from thevoltage on the external resistor, RDHL. Due to this feedback, theoperational amplifier OP1 forces the voltage on the external resistorRDLH to track the inverter (M4, M5) trip point voltage, and therebyforces the current through the external resistor to track the PVT. Theknown current mirror (1710 a) depicted in FIG. 17A forces each of thecurrents (I0, I1, I3) to match the current through the resistor RDLH andthereby forces currents (I0, I1, I3) to track the PVT. FIG. 17B shows asimilar circuit to the circuit of FIG. 17A, where a PVT-compensatedcurrent I2 is generated using a reference resistor RDHL, an operationalamplifier OP2, a current mirror (1710 b) and an inverter (M04, M05). Thecircuit in FIG. 17B operates in a same manner as the circuit of FIG. 17Adescribed above.

It should be noted that while the exemplary circuits depicted in FIGS.17A and 17B show two values for RDLH and RD_(HL), which are responsiblefor setting magnitude of currents for the four current sources (I0, I1,I2, I3), it is possible to use more than 2 (e.g. 3 or 4) differentresistors to set the magnitude of currents of the four current sources,as desired, where such current sources, in combination with thecorresponding charging capacitors, define dead times of the dead timecontroller circuit (1600) depicted in FIG. 16.

The person skilled in the art readily understands that the variousteachings of the present disclosure can apply to multiple semiconductormaterials and device structures. For simplicity, the embodiments andexamples presented herein for illustrative purposes include only GaNFETs as the high voltage devices controlled by the gate driver circuit(e.g. HS level shifter) according to the various embodiments of thepresent disclosure, and SOI MOSFETs for the low voltage control devicesused in the gate driver circuit (e.g. HS level shifter). The personskilled in the art can use the teachings according to the variousembodiments of the present disclosure to derive level shifters andcontrols using other types of low voltage transistors (e.g. non SOIMOSFETs) and for interfacing with other types of high voltagetransistors (e.g. non GaN FETs).

As mentioned in the prior sections of the present disclosure, the LevelShifter (e.g. HS level shifter (325)) according to the various presentedembodiments, as well as the gate driver circuit (310, 910), can bemanufactured, either in its entirety or partially, in an integratedcircuit based on various technologies, and in particular in CMOS or SOICMOS. Again, as mentioned above, CMOS technologies, whether bulk Si orSOI, have high level of integration, ease of manufacturing and anassociated low cost. Furthermore and as previously noted, low voltage(e.g. standard CMOS) transistors can have speed and performance whichcan drive GaN circuits (e.g. comprising high voltage GaN FETtransistors) in a manner that benefits from the low FOM of GaNtransistors.

However, while no transistor in the current level shifter (e.g. HS levelshifter (325) withstands a high voltage across the transistor (e.g.across its drain and source), the overall circuit as described above(e.g. level shifter) floats to high voltage (e.g. with voltage at nodeSW) and therefore the entire circuit is isolated from GND and withstandsthe high voltage drop from V_(IN) to GND.

FIGS. 18A, 18B and 18C depict cross sections of the three main CMOSsemiconductor technologies, listed above, specifically, SOS, SOI andbulk Si, respectively. A person skilled in the art readily recognizesthat each of such cross sections shows a single P and a single N typetransistor, and that only the very basic features of the transistors areshown, e.g. their source, S; their drain, D; and their gate, G.

The cross section depictions in FIGS. 18A, 18B and 18C of the twotransistor types can be understood by a person skilled in the art torepresent any array of transistor circuitry. In each version of CMOSshown, the transistors, both P and N types, are low voltage transistorsas used in the level shifter (e.g. HS level shifter (325, 925)) of thepresent disclosure, e.g., they are capable of handling a lowsource-drain voltages of only, for example, 5 Volts, or less.

FIG. 18A shows an exemplary silicon on sapphire (SOS) structurecomprising two low voltage transistor devices (110 a, P type) and (120a, N type) each comprising a gate terminal (G), a drain terminal (D) anda source terminal (S), whose P+ and N+ drain and source regions areformed within a thin Si layer (115) fabricated atop a sapphire (Al₂O₃)substrate (125). While the low voltage transistors (110 a) and (110 b)in FIG. 10A can only withstand low voltage, say up to 5V (between anytwo S, D, G terminals), an entire transistor circuit of the SOSstructure depicted in FIG. 18A can float from 0-V_(IN) volts withrespect to GND. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure,the backside of the SOS structure depicted in FIG. 18A, denotedBackside, can be connected to a DC voltage, such as 0V (GND), or leftunconnected (floating). In the case of the level shifter (e.g. HS levelshifter (325, 925)) according to the present teachings, the referencevoltage for the level shifter circuitry (e.g. high side) is at V_(SS)level (e.g. tied at common node SW), which is either 0 V (e.g. when theLS GaN FET T1 is ON), up to a voltage level of V_(IN) (e.g. when the HSGaN FET T2 is ON). Therefore, as a person skilled in the art canrecognize, the low voltage transistors (110 a) and (110 b) representedin FIG. 18A can operate at a high voltage (e.g. equal to or larger thanVin) with respect to GND without ever having to handle any high voltagebeing impressed across them (e.g. across a corresponding source anddrain). Instead, the sapphire substrate has the high voltage drop acrossits entire thickness. In a typical embodiment, the sapphire substrate(125) may be 10's to 100's of micrometers thick and therefore theelectric field created by such high voltage is well below the well-knowndielectric strength of the sapphire.

FIG. 18B shows an exemplary silicon on insulator (SOI) transistorstructure comprising two low voltage transistor devices (110 b, P type)and (120 b, N type), each comprising a gate terminal (G), a drainterminal (D) and a source terminal (S), in which a thin Si layer (115),which comprises the P+ and N+ source and drain regions of the P type andN type transistors, is formed on a buried silicon dioxide layer (130),thence on a Si substrate (140). As in the case of the SOS structure ofFIG. 18A, while the low voltage transistors (110 b) and (120 b) of thestructure depicted in FIG. 10B can only withstand up to, say, 5V(between any two S, D, G terminals), the entire transistor structure canfloat from 0-V_(IN) volts with respect to GND. According to anembodiment of the present disclosure, the backside of the SOI structuredepicted in FIG. 18B, denoted Backside, can be connected to a DCvoltage, such as 0V (GND), or left unconnected (floating). In the caseof the level shifter (e.g. HS level shifter (325, 925)) according to thepresent teachings, the reference voltage for the level shifter circuitry(e.g. high side) is at V_(SS) voltage level, which is either 0 V (e.g.when the LS GaN FET T1 is ON) up to a voltage level of V_(IN) (e.g. whenthe HS GaN FET T2 is ON). Therefore, as a person skilled in the art canrecognize, the low voltage transistors (110 b) and (120 b) representedin FIG. 18B can operate at a high voltage (e.g. equal to or larger thanVin) with respect to GND without ever having that high voltage impressedacross them (i.e. across any two constituent terminals S, D, G).Instead, the buried silicon dioxide layer has the high voltage dropacross its thickness. Such buried silicon dioxide layer is clearly muchthinner than the sapphire substrate in the SOS embodiment shown in FIG.18A.

In a typical SOI embodiment, the Si layer (115) and the buried silicondioxide layer (130) can typically be 0.1-1.0 micrometers in thicknessand the Si substrate (140) underneath the Si layer (115) and the buriedsilicon dioxide layer (130) can typically be 10's to 100's ofmicrometers thick. Therefore, the electric field inside the buriedsilicon dioxide layer (130) can typically be higher than in the sapphiresubstrate case depicted in FIG. 18A (since typically the sapphiresubstrate is much thicker than the silicon dioxide layer and cantherefore withstand a much higher V_(IN) voltage). In a properlydesigned embodiment, the buried silicon dioxide layer (130) is thickenough to withstand a maximum electric field associated to a voltageV_(IN) plus any noise spikes that may be impressed on the V_(IN)voltage, applied to the GND plane of the Si substrate (140).

FIG. 18C shows an exemplary bulk Si transistor structure comprising twolow voltage transistor devices (110 c, P type) and (120 c, N type), eachcomprising a gate terminal (G), a drain terminal (D) and a sourceterminal (S). A person skilled in the art readily knows that suchstructure is at least semiconductive throughout its entire thickness.Since Si is a good conductor relative to insulators such as silicondioxide or sapphire, the high voltage V_(IN) must be dropped acrosscorresponding reverse-biased diodes of such bulk Si structure that havehigh enough stand-off voltage to provide isolation to the grounded Sisubstrate. In the exemplary structure depicted in FIG. 18C, the highvoltage, V_(IN), is dropped across the diode formed by the bottomN-wells (N-WELL-1 and N-WELL-2) and the p-type substrate. This is shownin FIG. 18C for the typical case where V_(IN) is positive, where N-WELL1and N-WELL2 are connected, via an associated terminal (112), to node SWwhich swings form 0 (GND) to V_(IN). The person skilled in the artreadily knows that for the case where V_(IN) is negative, polarities ofthe structures shown in FIG. 18C can be reversed (e.g. all P structuresto N structures and vice versa) in order to allow the bulk p-Sisubstrate, which is grounded on its back side (e.g. connected to GND),to handle a large negative voltage drop (V_(IN)<0V). In such case whereV_(IN) is negative, node SW can be connected to P-WELLS provided withinthe Si substrate (connection not shown in FIG. 18C). The person skilledin the art readily knows that other well structures can be used in a Sistructure as long as such wells can provide high voltage handlingcapability equal to or larger than V_(IN). Again, while the low voltagetransistors in the structure depicted in FIG. 18C can only withstand upto, for example, 5V, the N-wells can float from 0-V_(IN) volts withrespect to GND.

Unlike insulators such as silicon dioxide or sapphire, diodes in bulk Sistructures can block current only in one direction, therefore asdescribed above, the exemplary transistor structure depicted in FIG. 18Cused in a level shifter (e.g. HS level shifter (325, 960)) according tothe various embodiments of the present disclosure can work for caseswhere V_(IN)>0V (=GND), or, by using an alternate wells structure (e.g.reverse polarity structures), for cases where V_(IN)<0V. Theinsulator-based transistor structures depicted in FIGS. 18A and 18B canhandle both positive and negative values of V_(IN), and can therefore beused in a level shifter according to the various embodiments of thepresent disclosure where V_(IN) takes either or both positive andnegative values. Since bulk Si structures can be cheaper, however, it isvaluable to note that while the insulator-based solutions may havesuperior performance or flexibility, the bulk Si solution may havereduced cost.

With this semiconductor description, an innovative apparatus for biasingand driving high voltage semiconductor devices using only low(breakdown) voltage transistors has been disclosed.

Applications that may include the novel apparatus and systems of variousembodiments include electronic circuitry used in high-speed computers,communication and signal processing circuitry, modems, single ormulti-processor modules, single or multiple embedded processors, dataswitches, and application-specific modules, including multilayer,multi-chip modules. Such apparatus and systems may further be includedas sub-components within a variety of electronic systems, such astelevisions, cellular telephones, personal computers (e.g., laptopcomputers, desktop computers, handheld computers, tablet computers,etc.), workstations, radios, video players, audio players (e.g., mp3players), vehicles, medical devices (e.g., heart monitor, blood pressuremonitor, etc.) and others. Some embodiments may include a number ofmethods.

It may be possible to execute the activities described herein in anorder other than the order described. Various activities described withrespect to the methods identified herein can be executed in repetitive,serial, or parallel fashion.

The accompanying drawings that form a part hereof show, by way ofillustration and not of limitation, specific embodiments in which thesubject matter may be practiced. The embodiments illustrated aredescribed in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art topractice the teachings disclosed herein. Other embodiments may beutilized and derived there-from, such that structural and logicalsubstitutions and changes may be made without departing from the scopeof this disclosure. This Detailed Description, therefore, is not to betaken in a limiting sense, and the scope of various embodiments isdefined only by the appended claims, along with the full range ofequivalents to which such claims are entitled.

Such embodiments of the inventive subject matter may be referred toherein individually or collectively by the term “invention” merely forconvenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope of thisapplication to any single invention or inventive concept, if more thanone is in fact disclosed. Thus, although specific embodiments have beenillustrated and described herein, any arrangement calculated to achievethe same purpose may be substituted for the specific embodiments shown.This disclosure is intended to cover any and all adaptations orvariations of various embodiments. Combinations of the aboveembodiments, and other embodiments not specifically described herein,will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the abovedescription.

The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. §1.72(b), requiring an abstract that will allow the reader to quicklyascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted withthe understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit thescope or meaning of the claims. In the foregoing Detailed Description,various features are grouped together in a single embodiment for thepurpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is notto be interpreted to require more features than are expressly recited ineach claim. Rather, inventive subject matter may be found in less thanall features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claimsare hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claimstanding on its own as a separate embodiment.

1. (canceled)
 2. A circuital arrangement configured to control a highside (HS) device and a low side (LS) device arranged in a stackedconfiguration, the HS device and the LS device capable of withstanding avoltage higher than or equal to a first voltage, the circuitalarrangement comprising: a HS control circuit operating between a firstswitching voltage and a second switching voltage based on the firstswitching voltage, the first switching voltage being an output voltageat a common output node of the stacked HS device and LS device, the HScontrol circuit configured to provide a HS output control signal at avoltage higher than the first voltage to the HS device; a LS controlcircuit configured to provide a LS output control signal to the LSdevice; and a dead time control circuit configured, to generate timinginformation for the HS output control signal and the LS output controlsignal, wherein all transistor devices of the HS control circuit, the LScontrol circuit and the dead time controller circuit, are eachconfigured to withstand a second voltage substantially smaller than thefirst voltage, wherein the timing information for the HS output controlsignal is coupled to the transistor devices of the HS control circuit byway of a DC blocking edge detection circuit comprising: i) a firstcapacitive coupling configured to receive a first HS input timingcontrol signal containing the timing information for the HS outputcontrol signal, and ii) a second capacitive coupling configured toreceive a second HS input timing control signal that is an invertedversion of the first input timing control signal, wherein: each of thefirst and second capacitive couplings comprises two series connectedcapacitors and a common node between the series connected capacitors,the common node configured to receive a respective one of the first andthe second HS input timing control signals, for each of the first andsecond capacitive couplings, a first capacitor of the two seriesconnected capacitors is coupled via a resistor connected to a terminalof the first capacitor away from the common node to the first switchingvoltage, so to generate a positive pulse (CUvss, CDvss) incorrespondence of a rising edge of a respective input timing controlsignal (CUb, CDb) and no pulse in correspondence of a falling edge ofsaid input timing control signal, for each of the first and secondcapacitive couplings, a second capacitor of the two series connectedcapacitors is coupled via a resistor connected to a terminal of thesecond capacitor away from the common node to the second switchingvoltage, so to generate a negative pulse (CUvdd, CDvdd) incorrespondence of a falling edge of the respective input timing controlsignal (CUb, CDb) and no pulse in correspondence of a rising edge ofsaid input timing control signal, and a first edge of the HS outputcontrol signal corresponds to concurrent detection of the positive pulsein correspondence of the rising edge of the first input timing controlsignal and the negative pulse in correspondence of the falling edge ofthe second input timing control signal, and a second edge of the HSoutput control signal corresponds to concurrent detection of thepositive pulse in correspondence of the rising edge of the second inputtiming control signal and the negative pulse in correspondence of thefalling edge of the first input timing control signal.
 3. The circuitalarrangement of claim 2, wherein: the HS output control signal comprisesa first pulse in correspondence of an ON state of the HS device, thefirst pulse defined by the first edge and the second edge of the HSoutput control signal, the LS output control signal comprises a secondpulse in correspondence of an ON state of the LS device, the first pulseand the second pulse are non-overlapping, and a pulse width of the firstpulse is substantially equal to a pulse width of an input pulse to thedead time control circuit.
 4. The circuital arrangement of claim 2,wherein the dead time controller circuits further comprises: a HSprocessing path configured to generate the timing information of the HSoutput control signal; and a LS processing path configured to generatethe timing information of the LS output control signal.
 5. The circuitalarrangement of claim 4, wherein the timing information is based on oneor both of a) an adjusted position of a rising edge of an input signal,and b) an adjusted position of a falling edge of the input signal. 6.The circuital arrangement of claim 5, wherein the HS processing path andthe LS processing path each comprise two processing circuits.
 7. Thecircuital arrangement of claim 6, wherein each of the processingcircuits performs an adjustment of one of a) the rising edge of theinput signal, and b) the falling edge of the input signal.
 8. Thecircuital arrangement of the claim 7, wherein each of the processingcircuits comprises a transistor, a current source, a capacitor and acomparator.
 9. The circuital arrangement of claim 7, wherein each of theprocessing circuits comprises a transistor, a current source, acapacitor and an inverter.
 10. The circuital arrangement of claim 9,wherein the adjustment is based on a time delay, with respect to one ofa) the rising edge of the input signal, and b) the falling edge of theinput signal, provided by the current source, the capacitor and a trippoint voltage of the inverter.
 11. The circuital arrangement of claim10, wherein the current source comprises control circuitry configured toadjust a magnitude of an output current of the current source based on avariation of the trip point voltage of the inverter.
 12. The circuitalarrangement of claim 11, wherein the variation of the trip point voltageis based on one or more of a) a fabrication process of the inverter, b)a voltage supply to the inverter and c) an operating temperature of theinverter.
 13. The circuital arrangement of claim 11, wherein themagnitude of the output current is controlled by a reference resistor.14. The circuital arrangement of claim 11, wherein the control circuitrycomprises: an operational amplifier; a current mirror; a referenceinverter with same characteristics as the inverter of the basicprocessing circuit, the reference inverter coupled to a first input ofthe operational amplifier; a transistor, wherein a gate of thetransistor is connected to an output of the operational amplifier, asource of the transistor connected to a second input of the operationalamplifier, and a drain of the transistor connected to a referencecurrent leg of the current mirror; and the reference resistor connectedbetween the source of the transistor and a reference ground.
 15. Thecircuital arrangement of claim 14, wherein the reference invertercomprises two series connected transistors, wherein gates and drains ofthe series connected transistors are connected to the first input of theoperational amplifier.
 16. The circuital arrangement of claim 2, whereinthe first voltage is equal to or higher than 10 volts, and the secondvoltage is equal to or lower than 5 volts.
 17. The circuital arrangementof claim 2, wherein the first voltage is equal to or higher than 25volts, and the second voltage is equal to or lower than 2.5 volts. 18.The circuital arrangement of claim 2, wherein the transistor devicescomprise one of: a) a silicon on sapphire (SOS) transistor structure, b)a silicon on insulator (SOI) transistor structure, and c) a bulk silicon(Si) transistor structure.
 19. The circuital arrangement of claim 18fabricated on a sapphire substrate of a), wherein the thickness of thesapphire substrate is selected such as to withstand a voltage drop equalto or larger than the first switching voltage.
 20. The circuitalarrangement of claim 19, wherein a thickness of the sapphire substrateis in a range of 10's to 100's micrometers.
 21. The circuitalarrangement of claim 18, wherein b) further comprises a buried silicondioxide layer whose silicon dioxide thickness is capable of withstandinga voltage drop equal to or larger than the first switching voltage. 22.The circuital arrangement of claim 21, wherein the silicon dioxidethickness of the buried silicon dioxide layer is 0.1-1.0 micrometers.23. A high voltage circuit operating at a voltage higher than 10 Vcomprising the circuital arrangement of claim 2, wherein the HS deviceand the LS device are arranged in a stacked configuration and the commonnode is in correspondence of a source terminal of the HS device and adrain terminal of the LS device.
 24. The high voltage circuit of claim23, wherein: the LS output control signal and the HS output controlsignal respectively control the LS device and the HS device to operatein one of two modes of operation; an ON mode which provides a conductionpath to the voltage higher than 10 V, and an OFF mode which removes theconduction path, and a time period in correspondence of the ON mode ofthe LS device is non-overlapping with a time period in correspondence ofthe ON mode of the HS device.
 25. The high voltage circuit of claim 24,wherein the conduction path is a conduction path between a drainterminal and a source terminal of the LS/HS device.
 26. The high voltagecircuit of claim 25, wherein control of the LS/HS device is provided viaconnection of a gate terminal of the LS/HS device to an output terminalof the LS/HS control circuit, respectively.
 27. The high voltage circuitof claim 26, wherein during the ON mode of operation of the HS device,the first switching voltage at the common node is substantially equal tothe voltage higher than 10 V, and during the OFF mode of operation ofthe HS device, the first switching voltage at the common node issubstantially equal to a reference voltage.
 28. The high voltage circuitof claim 27, wherein the voltage higher than 10 V is coupled to a drainterminal of the HS device, and the reference voltage is coupled to asource terminal of the LS device.
 29. The high voltage circuit of claim28, wherein a duty cycle of the first switching voltage is substantiallyequal to a duty cycle of the HS output control signal.
 30. A DC/DCconverter for conversion of a high DC voltage to a low DC voltagecomprising the high voltage circuit of claim
 29. 31. A method forcontrolling a high side (HS) device and a low side (LS) device arrangedin a stacked configuration, the HS device and the LS device capable ofwithstanding a voltage higher than or equal to a first voltage, themethod comprising: receiving an input timing signal; based on thereceiving, generating control timing signals for controlling the HSdevice and the LS device; generating, via capacitive coupling of thecontrol timing signals, an HS output control signal at a voltage higherthan the first voltage; generating, based on the control timing signals,an LS output control signal; controlling the HS device via the HS outputcontrol signal; and controlling the LS device via the LS output controlsignal; wherein the steps of generating are provided by transistordevices configured to withstand a second voltage substantially smallerthan the first voltage, wherein the step of generating the controltiming signals for controlling the HS device comprises generating afirst HS input timing control signal and a second HS input timingcontrol signal that is an inverted version of the first HS input timingcontrol signal, wherein the capacitive coupling comprises a firstcapacitive coupling configured to receive the first HS input timingcontrol signal and a second capacitive coupling configured to receivethe second HS input timing control signal, and wherein: each of thefirst and second capacitive couplings comprises two series connectedcapacitors and a common node between the series connected capacitors,the common node configured to receive a respective one of the first andthe second HS input timing control signals, for each of the first andsecond capacitive couplings, a first capacitor of the two seriesconnected capacitors is coupled via a resistor connected to a terminalof the first capacitor away from the common node to the first switchingvoltage, so to generate a positive pulse (CUvss, CDvss) incorrespondence of a rising edge of a respective input timing controlsignal (CUb, CDb) and no pulse in correspondence of a falling edge ofsaid input timing control signal, for each of the first and secondcapacitive couplings, a second capacitor of the two series connectedcapacitors is coupled via a resistor connected to a terminal of thesecond capacitor away from the common node to the second switchingvoltage, so to generate a negative pulse (CUvdd, CDvdd) incorrespondence of a falling edge of the respective input timing controlsignal (CUb, CDb) and no pulse in correspondence of a rising edge ofsaid input timing control signal, and a first edge of the HS outputcontrol signal corresponds to concurrent detection of the positive pulsein correspondence of the rising edge of the first input timing controlsignal and the negative pulse in correspondence of the falling edge ofthe second input timing control signal, and a second edge of the HSoutput control signal corresponds to concurrent detection of thepositive pulse in correspondence of the rising edge of the second inputtiming control signal and the negative pulse in correspondence of thefalling edge of the first input timing control signal.
 32. The method ofclaim 31, wherein the capacitive coupling provides DC blocking of thecontrol timing signals.
 33. The method of claim 31, wherein thecapacitive coupling provides timing information associated to risingedges and falling edges of the control timing signals.
 34. The method ofclaim 31, further comprising: based on the controlling of the HS deviceand the controlling of the LS device, providing a positive dead-timebetween a turn OFF time of the LS device and a turn ON time of the HSdevice, and providing a positive dead-time between a turn OFF time ofthe HS device and a turn ON time of the LS device.
 35. The method ofclaim 34, wherein a duty cycle of the HS output control signal issubstantially equal to a duty cycle of the input timing signal.
 36. Themethod of claim 31, further comprising: based on the controlling,generating a DC voltage, smaller than the first voltage, proportional toa ratio of an ON time of the HS device to a total period.